Omg I love your howdy head canon post (the one about conversion therapy). Can I ask what lead you to this conclusion?
I wouldn’t say it’s the most concrete headcanon but I’ve seen a conversation floating around on the true wealth of the pillar family due to the jewelry of Hiya and Aunt toodaloo, and though it has a place to be true that they are of high status, I’d argue it’s only a really well put front to make it seem like their family is more wealthy and put together than they actually are.
Considering welcome home takes place in the 70’s, if howdy’s at the very least 25yrs of age, he would’ve been alive during the 50’s through 60’s where family image was heavily pushed and enforced by society. I do acknowledge that howdy being 25 still makes him very young for a conversion camp (being that at 8 years old it’d be the year 1957) but in the end it could also highlight just how important image may be to the pillar family, that they were willing to fix whatever they saw wrong with him “early” before it got too “unreversable”
Maybe it’s stereotypical but including the fact they are also butterflies seems like they’d care even more about image and prospect as they are seen as a “pretty” bug, whether or not that’s actually true.
Plus I feel like it could also add a more complex and strange dynamic between Howdy and his brother where his brothers is more obvious in his queerness yet experiences no consequences in the matter. (I may be wrong and something does happen behind closed doors)
Which leads to the idea that the family either:
1. Chooses to ignore it, of which Howdy is frustrated with as he was raised/taught that this matter was something to be “dealt” with.
Or a more frustrating (but less canon) number 2…
2. His family embraces it. They learn from media and from the growing times that maybe you can’t get rid of such queer attributes in a person. Which could lead to howdy being ultimately jealous towards his brother as he himself received no sympathy or kindness from his family when he showed any sense of queerness, further bottling himself up in these conservative values (and locking that closet shut)
There are many minor reasons that play a part with this theory like maybe him being older and possibly seen as more mature then his brother ergo he would “know better” but ultimately this is what I came up with. As of working on this post there has been people speculating something from the older bug audios but I’m not quite sure if those are canon anymore to be viable evidence.
Overall: Howdy’s family image and the time period, is what made me come to this conclusion