I’ve seen these walking freak shows strutting around public shopping places in my hometown in a very red county (over 2-1 Trump) in Pennsylvania. They just crave attention and act very disappointed when you simply ignore them.
I see them in my very blue city of Boston (not that many though) they are always really tall. I learned to ignore them though when I first ran into one I made a really disgusted face (though it wasn’t on purpose I was just legitimately disgusted).
I think you’re right that they just want to get a reaction out of people.