I had this discussion once before at my old workplace. In certain groups (particularly younger people in my experience) 'gay' means stupid. Personally, pants is the word we used to use (age showing). How people respond to gay people often seems a result of the cultural norm around them and the way others treat them. Example: My fiancé's workplace had a lesbian girl start work there. Not an attractive girl, short hair, bit of a tomboy. Within minutes, all of the men there were making jokes about her being a lesbian and the usual lesbian jokes (that I'm not even gonna mention or fear of silencing even though i'm trying to make a serious post) were flying round. Lesbian girl then kissed a male. He had the urine extracted from him for WEEKS. When I recounted this at my work (public sector, very focused on equal opps etc) I was told this was disgusting and all involved should have been sacked. I agree it's disgusting. I also know that in private companies, training on things like equal opportunities is considered an annoyance that has to be done and takes up time when you should be working. None of those people intended to offend the girl concerned. Taking the piddle and calling each other 'you homo' is an affectionate thing among workmates. To reduce this, it's not just schools who need to take action but employers too. That said, it's the public sector who push it to the private sector who often don't care. Result? More hostility. The media hype it up too. £xxx,xxx training costs for police force to cover one transsexual policeman! Etc Just bloody accept each other
Oh and I have lots of gay friends. A good gay friend was beaten half to death when he slept with a girl and came out not long after. People took the pee that he slept with her and she was so gross that she 'turned him'. She had him beaten into intensive care.
What does it mean to 'take pee' or to 'have pee extracted for weeks' because where I'm from, it means something else...