Is there an increasing frequency, or is it people coming out who would have remained closeted in the past?
What this society champions or makes look kewl becomes more common whether it's rockers making drug use look kewl sitcoms and ads making Valley Girl teenagers look kewl, or stoner guys look kewl.
You can see that reality in American culture starting all the way back with beat nicks and copacetic being on the Dobie Gillis Show. Between then and now, parents have grown to accept that level of influence on their children while at one time they fought it. Parental responsibility has gone from an enforced "stay away from X they're a bad influence", to the shrug of "whadda ya' gonna do" if they even know who their kids hang out with. Therefore, the final authority on what is right and wrong or good and bad is more often than not decided by whatever big media shovel out, not the parents.
Young Americans have been trained to be little mimes of whatever the establishment media machine dictates, period. Make being a queer wearing a Kotex in your butt crack look like a good way to be considered hip and worthy of attention and you get more of them, it's really that simple. No genetic or magic connection required.