I think the reason this is all coming to a head now is that it's harder to hide your opinions, or rather it's easier to unintentionally air them to a broader audience than you might prefer. Social media makes it too easy to inadvertently make a political statement. See elsewhere in this thread where a commenter mentions being unfriended by people for congratulating his sister on her wedding to another woman. It's easier for people to police the details of their acquaintances lives and it's harder to hide your differences by compartmentalizing. It's probably a good thing in the long term because people are becoming more accepting, but in the short term it's definitely introducing frictions where otherwise a little tact could avoid a conflict altogether.