To answer, I was pretty blissfully not self aware about why I didn't like my hometown. I was also an athletic kid who played football, soccer, basketball, baseball and swimming so I wasn't a target of bullies.
I had no real idea that I was gay, even though I managed to find several other boys that were willing to trade blowjobs from junior high til graduation. I didn't truly understand that I was gay until I saw 2 guys kissing on the front page of the Daily Texan my first week at UT. So, when my tennis coach called me a queer, I didn't see it as an assault on my identity. When my preacher talked about the homosexuals going to hell, I didn't think he was talking about me. But had I been a bit more self aware I might've. And there wasn't a single soul in my hometown I knew of that I could have gone and talked to about that, who would've supported me through that, and who would've done anything at all to reassure me that things would be ok.
I can easily imagine a world where I was less athletic and more self aware, where not only was it harder to make friends, but I was getting a barrage of negative actions and words thrown at me by society, by my teachers, by my church, by my friends who don't know about me, by the bullies that have figured out I'm an easy target, by my parents. Imagine all those people just cutting you to pieces over and over again. And there is NO ONE you can go to about it. There is nothing you can do except keep taking it. I can absolutely see where kids can see this as a ride they do not want to be on.
So yes, representation matters. Hearing about Tommy's 2 dads or Billy's 2 moms or the teacher's brother marrying another boy are all little toe holds in life that self aware gay kids can use to help them get to the next day and the next until they are in a place where they can actually stand on their own two feet, where they can finally get out of that toxic environment and they can make a new family of friends who can help them overcome the years and years of casual abuse that was heaped on them while they sat in silence.
And by the way I call it casual abuse because most people have no idea it was abuse. I'm pretty certain that tennis coach never would've called me a queer if he thought I actually was, but that type of casual name calling, which is a good gotcha for straight kids, is psychologically devastating to the gay ones.
And finally, I say all this because every kid needs someone they can trust. And this is true for every gay person I've ever known. At some point they reach an inflection point where it is no longer possible for them to keep this to themselves. In the environment I grew up in, there was no one. I went to an anti-gay church, so I knew my parents agreed with the church and I was an abomination. I had friends and teachers that had no compunction around calling people fags and queers. 18 years of that environment took its toll, and it wasn't until ~10 years later that I finally talked to another person about what I knew about myself my first week at UT. It was another 2 years after that before I told someone that I actually cared if they rejected me. Thinking I would have non-supportive parents delayed my ability to grow up and start being an adult and fully living my life for 10 years, at this point fully 1/5 of my life. And that's someone that didn't have to suffer the slings and arrows as personal attacks. Imagine how much worse it would've been if I had? Would I still be here today? I actually don't know.
Sorry to go on about this, I'm late to this thread.