Unfortunately activists have done a fantastic job turning gay into a broad political issue encompassing a lot of ideologies that many people find off-putting. So when you see a plot like this, your first thought is that 1) the author has a self righteous agenda and 2) the award is not deserved but rather given to signal sides in a culture war.

Neither of those things may be true. And that’s tragic because a lot of great work is going to be written off under these pretenses.

I wouldn't call it "distressing", but we are entitled to like some genres and dislike others. Not everything should be for everyone. And generally some genres are over promoted by the big labels and imo have worse quality on average.