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.
I believe the US Academy of Medicine (or whatever it is) stopped referring to homosexuality as a mental disorder in the early 1970s...
Illinois was the first US state to decriminalize homosexuality, in 1965 I believe. It was the only state in the 60s, but quite a few other states did in the 70s, and some in the 80s and 90s. But it wasn't until
Lawrence v. Texas in 2003 that all such laws in all states were struck down.