One of my best friends growing up was a 50-year-old lesbian. It’s all good with me.
I really don’t think you have to say this in order to make your point. You sound like one of those white dudes who says “I have lots of black friends!”
I’ve been implied to be a homophobe before in some discussions on this forum. I think people like to preemptively combat the assumptions that people will make about them. I’ve done it before too but now I don’t really care what anyone thinks about me.