It's not empathy. Gay people (myself included) don't feel "empathized with" when we see gay people reflected in modern advertising. We feel targeted, and rightfully so - people are preying on the unintelligent reactionary masses that empathize with or want to empathize with queer identity. It is fully and wholly virtue signalling - queer media was better when it was an underground identity! At least then the concept wasn't being abused for brownie points by C-suite executives that profit off the manipulation of their audience.

On the flip side, the wanton "wokeness" of the right is equally abusive. Right wing grandstanders say exactly what their party wants to hear, absolve themselves of responsibility ("oh i'm anonymous" or "i don't believe this but it's my right to say it"), and then get thousands of unironic adherents that fully believe in their hyperbolic attention-seeking. It's the exact same mechanism on either side of the aisle, jerking off precisely the same insecurities for almost exactly the same reason.

At some indeterminate point in the future, all Americans will end up being conservative. Not because it's the right choice, but because the way politics are headed nobody will be encouraged to think outside marketing and empty platitudes. We already spend more time defending our echo chambers than we spend engaging with policy.