This is me just running my mind, so bear with...

I think the biggest political issue, in the US, right now is what we might call the "threat to the status quo." For many, many years the people making all the decisions were men of similar educational/religious/financial background, with similar values and desires, and they were mostly legislating from those values and desires, without considering the values and desires of others (because, let's be honest, we only really notice other people's when they come into conflict with our own, and if the other person has no power behind them, they don't come into conflict with us.)

So we've got the Old White Guy majority in the political arena, and all of a sudden people of different background start Getting Ideas!

Women's Rights!

Segregation!

Now it's voting and immigration and gays, all at once, and the Old White Guys have been bleeding from a million tiny cuts and they're determined to hang on to their political majority (even if it's largely contrived and they're clinging by their fingernails to the edge of the cliff). They're losing, and they know they're losing, but they're not ready to lose yet, so as more cuts come, they are trying to close up some of the old ones.

That's why abortion and reproductive issues are back in the spotlight, and why every legislative "focus group" is comprised of older men with a religious background that opposes anything that puts a hold on procreation.

In the backs of their minds, they're thinking "We gave you this, and we thought we were done with you and now you're back, wanting MORE, so in return you're going to have to give this back to us."

It may take us a few more years yet, but eventually, it will become apparent that there are more of US than there are of THEM, and even some of them are becoming disillusioned. Once you've seen the vocal minority as a group of people, with thoughts and feelings and opinions, it's difficult to unsee that. I think the problem I have with the Old White Guys is that they tend to look at women, children -- really, anyone Not Like Them -- as intellectually like a sort of superior (by which I mean "with opposable thumbs and therefor capable of following more sophisticated direction) domesticated animal, rather than as individuals with the ability to reason and consider and question and, y'know, have Free Will (but that's a rant for another place and time, honestly). 

Which is why I think homophobia IS, in fact, a fear -- a ridiculous one, perhaps, but not necessarily unreasonable. The Rainbow Flag (and all its allies) stand to acquire a fair amount of power, and when they do, they will be prying it from the hands of the Old White Guys who just want to maintain the status quo. And once they lose that power, it's GONE, and many of them will have nothing left, because if they can't have political power, what's the rest of it all FOR, after all...