I suppose it's hard for someone who isn't gay to understand how a gay person's life is like (I'm not, so I don't assume I understand), and what kind of hardships they may or may not endure.
"Flaunting" one's sexual preference is a relative term since, as someone mentioned earlier, the term can be attached to all sorts of situations. Saying "I like pie", "I'm a pr0 gamer" or "I'm gonna go buy some condoms for tonite" ;) can be considered by many to be flaunting, bragging etc. Stating that you're gay when you meet new people might as well be (consciously or otherwise) behavior meant to "test" the new acquaintance, whether they're prejudiced or not. This thread may or may not have been created for just that reason, to check if our community is generally open-minded "gay-friendly".
Unfortunately the hate is still alive in many people, but most of us wouldn't feel it, because, as stated before, most of us are intelligent, level-headed grownups and surround ourselves with similar people, not some hot-headed morons. An acquaintance of mine, who is bisexual, got beaten up by a bunch of guys on a train station just for holding hands with her GF, so I'm pretty sure there's still a lot of hate left in the western world. Especially since, in my opinion, lesbians are more acceptable by the common male (girl-on-girl pr0n etc.) than gay people.
Before I get back to work, I just wanted to say that I find it pretty cool that such a controversial, perhaps volatile, topic didn't end up being a flame war, just a heated discussion at best. Classy community, indeed. ;)