I can tell you the pull of conformity in small-town USA is absolute, if you look from an outside perspective....they just don't get it and are content with ignorance.
I personally wouldn't be glad that public indecency is considered freedom. You can be gay or whatever but you don't have the right to do indecent things in public, no matter who you are.
Ah, the classic right-wing technique of taking pictures from Folsom Street Fair and putting them next to pictures from Pride to imply they are the same thing.