Through out the book, and consequentially Bob Dollar's life, there is a reoccurring vein of subtle homosexuality. His surrogate care taker, Uncle Tam, had a roommate and suspected partner, Bromo. Although Bob was never sure, he had suspicions, and through the book, the audience can judge these to be true.
Then, once Bob arrives in Woolybucket, he is briefed on the history and gossip of the area. A large chunk of this news is devoted to the retirees and city dwellers that think of Woolybucket as an excellent place for a second home or empty-nester house. Of these people, the talk of the town is currently the gay couple that moved in and renovated the old Cowboy Rose schoolhouse and turned it into a glassblowing studio.
The entire community is a put off and unsure of how to deal with the issue, as in the West, homosexuality never was or is common or spoken about (there is no mention of Broke Back Mountain), and so every one has different ways of viewing the situation. However, generally they feel the same: gays are bad. As shown in the quote above, they see it as even worse then the hog farms, which they despise. To them, on the spectrum, there are "homaseashells" and pig farms, and then there is the good old West, complete with cowboys and riding off into the sunset.
This represents the area's inability to accommodate it's self with the modern age. While all around it, the outside world is coming to be more open and okay with homosexuality (a debatable topic within it's self...), Woolybucket County is stuck in it's ways, and inevitably the past. It seems that every one in the county is still obsessed with the way things used to be, and they spend most of their time revisiting old stories and living in the past. It's almost as if a step into Woolybucket County is a step into a time machine, which, I'm sure they would be proud of.
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