I remember those days. Apart from Liberace, who was indeed obviously gay but never said so, I knew several other people personally who were gay. You knew that they were gay, but they never rubbed your nose in it, or insisted that you worship gaydom, the way they do now.
And I knew a couple of genuinely conservative gays. Not just libertarians who claimed to be conservative. In fact, one of them came and gave a talk at NYU about why it was NOT a good idea for gays to become political activists trying to force everyone out of the closet and naming everything else a hate crime.
Regrettably, he lost the argument.
I had a friend and working colleague who turned out to be gay. He showed no overt signs of it. He was old school and was married to a German “war bride.” He “came out” after his wife died. We remained friends until I left the area. He knew my attitude toward “gayness” but it was something we just put aside.
I remember those days when even in Texas the two nice guys with the neat yard and garden were left to their own, it was like gambling or other vices, when kept away from the kids and the public space, they were mostly left alone, some laws were mostly intended to keep some things in the shadows, restrained, limited to the out of sight corners of the adult world.