People of all ages feel the need to tease, taunt, harass and/or ridicule others for various reasons; we package this behavior as "bulling," and no, not all "bullying" is equal. In my previous posting, I listed some statistics, but let's focus on the splits for males only: 3% identify as GBTQ (as opposed to 9% of females identifying as LGBTQ), over 90% report regularly being called slurs, over 70% feel uncomfortable at school, over 40% seriously consider suicide at some point, etc. I can't stress that last statistic enough -- over 40% of GBTQ males in grade school report having serious thoughts of suicide at some point (during their youth). Do you believe that anywhere close to 40% of "band nerds" try the same?
I'm straight, but as I discussed above, I was bullied for being "that gay kid" in school. It was insanely vicious - I had no friends. My former friends no longer wanted to be friends with me, my peers would protest having to sit next to me, I sat alone during lunch, and everybody was afraid of even talking to me in fear of being labeled themselves.
Now this is silly. Firstly, it's called due diligence - she was concerned about one aspect, but may not have been aware of another, which would impact a rational person's decision. No different that what occurs in many threads on this forum on a daily basis. Secondly, any kid is going to post pictures of their summer vacation (although those pictures won't usually include mom & dad). If he's unaware of the significance of the rainbow, or how people may respond to him coming out, why on Earth would he crop the photos???