OMG the first line of this post is a riot!!! "We had a period of time when the gays.... " I have never been refered to as "the gays". Speaking from experience, I have marched in many drum corps Jr and Sr, and being a gay man no one was ever outwardly rude. Now there may have been times when some people would say things behind my back but as far as I was concerned, if they had a problem or issue with me, they would come to me directly. I remember in my Jr corps days. The corps director stated that he did not care if you were gay, straight, bi, asexual or a unick. What you do on your own time is your business. But as long as you were within the organization, you would be treated with respect and understanding. Coming from a corps director, that meant something. The corps was very successful and the corps itself was the tightest group of people ever. Most families were not this tight. The men and women in the corps who were gay were even closer. We had a bond that far surpassed the corps bond. To this day, I still have very close friends (gay and straight) who I would do anything for because of this bond. And that was when I marched Jr corps was in the late 80's. Having marched in many Sr corps, the attitude is much the same. The only difference is, with the wide age range (from 15-60), the younger folks don't seem to mind. It is the older members that refer to the more " visually artiscally gifted" as "the gays" or "the queers". But that is something that I chalk up to the era that they grew up in. So, to get off my rhinestone covered soapbox, homosexuality in drum corps is common and will not be going away any time soon. Overall acceptance inside (and outside) the activity, will help (hopefully) the young people grow into mature and well rounded adults.
Thanks for reading.