When I lived in rural areas basically the only sign of gay people was the pride merchandise put out by large corporations.

It doesn’t matter in cities that are full of open gay people, but the universal application of these initiatives means it ends up normalizing this stuff in areas that might otherwise not experience it, and for that alone it’s a problem that these kinds of things are going away.

It’s honestly kinda wild to me how many gay folks are so “I hate pride stuff!” these days tbh, but I guess that’s differing perspectives for you.