I lived in Houston, Texas and a couple of other major cities for over 40 years so I am well aware of what goes on. I am also aware of the tragedy of HIV/AIDS having buried many of my gay friends (including my youngest brother). As to gay bashing, I have witnessed red necks drinking beer and who were out to bash what they feared first hand in Houston so I don't need to travel to Australia to check out the scene. Neither my brother nor I were sexually abused; however my lesbian cousin and niece were both sexually abused by an adult member of their family.
In case you have not noticed this is a fundamentalist Christian message board where we share and promote Biblical truth. I can and do fully accept my gay friends and neighbors as human beings. I volunteer for a local HIV/AIDS charity on a weekly basis (all of the other volunteers are gay men with AIDS) and did the same when I lived in Houston. I am well aware that most members of the gay community are loving, compassionate, and in some cities bashed by drunks who have nothing better to do than get drunk and go "queer bashing". In my professional career all my employers knew I was gay or ex-gay so your experience is not much different than mine. I do not insist that gay men or lesbians change their orientation based on my personal beliefs; on the other hand I am willing and able to show them a different way if they so choose to seek freedom from a life they do not want to live.
Now back to Biblical truth. As a Christian I do not judge the gay community or any other human being outside the Body of Christ. Christians are not commanded to judge those outside our own community and in fact are commanded not to judge. We are commanded to “love your neighbor as yourself” and that includes the members of the gay community. For those Christians who believe the gay community is our enemy (which cannot be found in God’s truth) we are commanded to love them and do good not evil towards them. I have yet to read of a real Christian bashing any member of the gay community. On the other hand I have seen more discrimination in the gay community than you have shared in your post. Gay men and lesbians do not socialize very much outside political necessity (have you ever walked alone into a lesbian bar where men are not welcome). Human nature has not changed. Prior to Anita Bryant and the HIV/AIDS crisis the gay community was fragmented so what unity you see is based on political and medical necessity. This has not changed according to my gay friends in Houston, San Francisco, and other major U.S. cities. And yes I do have gay friends who understand my position and we get along just fine.
You refer to some of my post as “psychobabble”; can you back that up with facts and not just your opinion? How an individual perceives his/her environment is at the root of many behaviors not just homosexuality. How much to do actually know about the psychological roots of homosexuality? Have you taken the time to educate yourself or is your position simply an emotional knee jerk reaction to what you do not fully understand? Emotional love for a member of the same sex is no different than the emotional love for a member of the opposite sex; both involve deep-seated God given needs.