Bunny, I get what you're saying, and agree to a point. But I kind of see this as a Crash/Brokenack Mountain situation.
Both movies were very good, and dealt with intolerance. Crash's issues were racial, BBM's were homosexual. When the Oscars aired, I thought that, given how the night was going, that BBM would take the Best Picture award. So imagine my literal jaw-dropping shock when Crash was named. Even the actors announcing it were like "WTF???" While discussing it on a forum with folks, I put forth the notion that Hollywood, and, by extension, America, can only deal with one large issue at a time. Racism vs homosexuality. The fact that these two movies were vying for consideration at the same time shows that we have come just a short way along the very long road to basic acceptance.
And I totally agree that teaching acceptance is the more important tact to take. But look at this line of thinking, if you will. Say that Rowling mentions Dumbledore being gay during the series, like maybe book six. The focus of the story would have completely shifted from Harry vs Voldemort to "OMG, the Headmaster's gay, wtf??" In this country alone, that would have been enough to cause a shitstorm of Katrina proportions. The basic story of good and evil would have devolved into a debate about homosexuality. You know this would happen. People in this country have way more of a Will and Grace approach to homosexuality than a QAF one. And it's not gonna change for some time. Maybe the next President, whoever it is, will start to address this issue head on, and we'll get somewhere. JMHO
I'd love to discuss this more. This is gonna be a hot topic for awhile.