My friend held my hand in public and it made me rather scared.

I was hanging out with my friends today and we decided to go to Walmart. We all split up for a bit and I wound up walking with my male friend. He's a rather open guy. Not gay, just flexible with his sexuality I guess. We start walking in front of all the checkout lines and he just grabs my hand and doesn't let go.So we're walking in front of all these people and I can just feel the stares. We live down South so everyone still isn't on board with the whole gay thing. At first I'm embarrassed cause I don't really do that. But then I actually start to get scared. I've been called names under people's breath before, but never assaulted thankfully. But the possibility of someone coming at me with the intent to hurt me puts me on edge. Ever since my father threatened to "beat me straight", I've been like that.I know my friend is trying to help me in his own way. He tends to embrace me in very crowded places so I can get more comfortable with being open. But I still get nervous because people don't like what they don't understand, and it makes them act unpredictably.Do you have a similar problem? Does it bother when you're out with a SO and you worry about how people will react? Or am I being a scaredy cat?