It was (is perhaps) a good in between stage but it has most probably served that purpose (people are now used to the idea, I imagine, that homosexuals can serve, as long as no one talks about it).
In terms of moving to the next stage, I suspect it won't be as bad as it seems (though you might well be factoring that in) - I've lived a fair chunk of my life in the countryside in the UK where the average person is white and straight and there does tend to be a lot of enjoying of bigoted jokes and general comments but in 95% of cases there is always the exception of any actual gay or non-white people they know.
Of course, it will be rough even so but I do recall a couple of the people at this site (or maybe Wotmania) who said they'd served with people who everyone was gay and it had never been an issue.