Good to see a new thread for this.
I personally have run into no problems at cons or in the general populace of otakus. Everyone I've ever met at a con has been really great. I think when you're an otaku, even if you start out close-minded, you become more open-minded as you get more into it, since yaoi and yuri in both canon and fandom are such big things, and crossplayers are really common at cons. I know a number of people who did change as they got more into the whole otaku community. We're just an accepting bunch, and it rubs off on people. At least that's what I think.
As for what we should do, I liked when we talked about how different yaois and yuris portray the LGBTQ community in both positive and negative ways. That was very interesting, since once I thought about it, a lot of the series I really liked, some of which I still like, are ridiculous and unrealistic. Other than that, the discussion will probably just go wherever it goes, as long as it has a jumping off point.
And although I know you already know this, definitely a bigger room and way more time would be good. Last time the conversation got cut off by time contraints just when it was really interesting.
