"they realize they can't get away with overtly vocally treating blacks, Jews, Catholics the way they used to."
Blacks, Jews and Catholics (KKK?) make up a sizable portion of the electorate. If they must create a common enemy, the "sodomites," with only 5% of the population +/-, are a convenient political target.
Believe it or not, I'm not terribly observant, but I can say with moral certainty that there's nothing Chistian about what they're doing to the gay population.