People like Brinton used to be shunned (deservedly) by civilized people. Today people like him are celebrated by half the population.
Tell me how America today is better than it was half a century ago and more.
Keep in mind that Washington, D.C. is one of, if not
the 'gayest' city in the USA, with 2019 estimates that just over ten percent (remember that number?) of the population there were one or more of the GLBTQ etc. crowd. Portland, Seattle, Austin, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and New York City have very large populations, too, with most sources putting Bay Area San Francisco at the top of the heap with 6.7% or so, downplaying the DC concentration, perhaps to downplay the influence there. You can bet your sweet bippie that those in DC tend to be in Government or positions influential to Government employees, and that is likely to be the reason such a minority lifestyle is so 'celebrated'. (well, that and having the goods on people on the down low who don't want to be 'outed'. At one time, such proclivities were considered a security risk, as they opened up possibilities for blackmail. I believe those possibilities still exist among the prominent and powerful who seem to be disproportionately deviant, and that such leverage is being exercised wherever possible to set policy that flies in the face of traditional morality
In case you're wondering why your town of
maybe 1% gays is being subjected to the sorts of policies coming out of Washington that just don't seem appropriate for your particular wide spot in the road in flyover country, keep in mind that those relatively high concentrations of GLBTQ folks are in the cities that are setting policy, producing "entertainment" (and commercials), and that house corporate headquarters, and that their Overton Window is just in a different part of the building.
In-your-face, "flaming" homosexuals were commonly confined to more segregated venues, but the duration and concentration of such folks in those power centers has distorted perceptions to the degree that major corporations, in their rush to pander to what they perceive as a tenth of the market, shoot themselves in the proverbial foot by alienating the vast majority of non-GLBTQ folks out there who aren't as desensitized to or sympathetic to such lifestyles.