Not a gay person but generally people usually prefer people try to be nice rather than openly hostile.

I think when there's implicit consensus on a topic, it disempowers people who disagree from speaking out openly. Anytime someone speaks out, there's always a chance that anyone sitting on the fence would agree with them. I think that while rainbow washing was a flimsy shield, it was still a shield against bigotry because of the implied consensus of support and the disempowering of bigots from speaking out and potentially swaying anyone still on the fence.