The homophobia you describe in Everything Sucks sounds very realistic to me. Rural Oregon in the mid-90s was not much different from the deep south (speaking from experience). Anti-gay discrimination was very real. Oregon voted on statewide anti-gay-rights ballot measures in 1992 and 1994, both of which barely failed (these measures passed by big margins in the rural areas, but liberal Portland had enough people to win the statewide vote). These votes emboldened homophobes. I remember "Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve" posters on students' lockers, etc.
