… gay people becoming willing to come out (social circle by social circle). They always were there, mind you. They were just in the closet out of self-defense.
… people who might be gay, or bisexual, being willing to accept that, rather than staying in the closet from even themselves.
So, yes, there's an increase in publicly visible gay people. And there will probably be an increase in people who identify as gay or bisexual. Not because of "recruitment" or some other Right-wing contagion myth, but because increasingly it's safe — legally and socially and emotionally and physically — to be out.
And I think that's a good thing.
Yes, Open Homosexuality Is Contagious. But Not the Way Its Repressors Feared.
First it was Jason Collins. Then Michael Sam. Now Derrick Gordon. One openly gay athlete leads to another, and another, and another. Collins is in the NBA. Sam, a college football player, is trying out for the NFL. Gordon, a sophomore at the University of Massachusetts, came out today as…