I hadn't seen the article in years, until you asked about it. The "welcoming environment" thing was how my memory interpreted the point of the article. I'm not really sure if unisex names will pave the way for acceptance, but I do like the idea of creative parents being apart of that, if they are indeed, trying to. Even then..
It takes more than naming trends to do it. All trends stop at some point. So any "equality" that might've come from the names will, too. And unisex names are switching to the girl's side, not to the guy's. So, technically, the daughters are benefitting from having Cool names because people think they've got an edge, but I'm not so sure about the sons. There are some middle-aged men with "girl names" that can't reverse their modern gender usage. (Whitney, Courtney, Carroll, etc.) There's an article about that on BTN.
I think that trendiness would only play a small role in that, if it even played a roll at all. I don't think the goal here is to gloss over sex, but to take away bad perceptions of having a particular sex. Gender would not need to be glossed over if we were talking about science, as men and women are biologically made to suit each other, but not be identical. It would also be cool to acknowledge the first woman who won an award that had regularly been given to men. But unless there's history or science going on, I don't see the point in putting emphasis on sex. Aside from gender, people have almost everything else in common. Having flaws, hopes and dreams, and all that sappy stuff about wanting to be loved (lol). So, I personally wouldn't give my kids unisex names to send them the message that ignoring gender would stop people from getting hurt, since it isn't true. But, I do think that it might teach kids to see themselves on even ground with their peers, and not judge them for being unlike them in some way. It might be ineffective, but that's all that I could hope for, if that was my goal, anyway.
https://www.behindthename.com/polls/356294https://www.behindthename.com/polls/356351https://www.behindthename.com/polls/member/181370