Why do we have Pride?

There's a fairly well-known story that illustrates this that I'll paraphrase here.[1, 2]

A Redditor thought that he was being homophobic towards his gay roommate because he got mad whenever he saw his roommate with other guys. Fast forward a couple of days and after discussing this with several Redditors and his sister he finds out that what he's feeling isn't homophobia, but rather jealousy. Eventually him and his roommate talk it out and they end up in a relationship.

Had this happened a couple decades earlier their story would have likely gone very differently. For starters the gay roommate probably wouldn't have been out about being gay and might have been acting in a more stereotypically "straight" manner to not raise suspicion. Had the straight guy found out that his roommate was gay there would be a higher chance that he was homophobic, and even if he wasn't he'd be far less likely to question his own sexuality after thinking of himself as straight for his entire life. Their story only ended the way it did because they live in a time where homophobia is less prevalent in society.

As societal acceptance increases more people who experience same-sex attraction and gender dysphoria are willing to explore and adopt a non-heterosexual and/or trans identity, and more people are willing to tell that to a pollster as well.

The life expectancy of queer people also appears to be smaller for a variety of reasons, although the gap with cishet people seems to have reduced over time.