I'm not trying to dismiss drag queens, but people seem to have this idea in their heads that because they were transgressive in terms of how they dressed, they made social change happen while all the mainstream gay people with careers simply hid in the closet and did nothing. That's not what I remember at all.

This is exactly the message I've been taught, by other LGBTQ+ people around me and by all the media popular among people in my generation. Fascinating to hear the opposite perspective from someone who was actually around for that time period.

I think a key piece, which you highlighted, is this:

What I think a lot of people don't get is that a lot of community organizing and activist work is actually pretty boring. Most of it does not involve dramatic confrontations in the street.

Nobody wants to hear that. Nobody wants to hear the boring details of the actual truth. Certainly not people in the TQ+ movement. I tend to relate much more to the "assimilated gay person" stereotype; being homosexual/bisexual is natural and there's nothing "special" about it. But some people seem to want to hang their entire identities and self-worth off of the fact that they're LGB (if, in fact, they are LGB and aren't just LARPing straight people pretending to be...). I hear so much shit from people my age directed at LGB people who aren't "loud and proud," who don't initiate conversations about their gayness/bisexuality all the time. Just because I don't wear rainbows and the latest TQ+ fashion stereotypes doesn't mean I'm not proud to be myself, or that I'm ashamed of being gay. Such BS.