Living in a society which has gone pretty far in tolerance I can say that it obviously isn't generally true that homosexuals can't be accepted in society. Sweden decriminalized homosexuality at about the same time as the US but today has gay marriage and being bigoted against gays is certainly more controversial than being gay.
Sweden didn't decriminalize homosexuality until 2003?
Weird, I must have been mixing this up with something else. I could have sworn both Sweden and the US made this move in the early 70s (like a lot of social legislation) but apparently this was not the case with either country. Apologies and all that.
The main point remains unchanged though - bigotry can disappear rather quickly.