My big dumb question is: how many of us really knew what the words "gay", "queer", and "homosexual" really meant back when we were "youths"? (I didn't know til I was grown) How many of us were even allowed, to entertain the THOUGHT of "questioning" our sexuality when we were growing up? (My mom's paddle was too much of a deterrent to think about such things)
When I was in 4th grade, in the '70's the obnoxious boys would call people faggots. Nobody knew what it meant. The school dictionary said it was a bundle of sticks. I had a assumed it meant uncool, as did most everybody else. One small kid asked the jerks why they called him a bundle of sticks, he got roughed up but they no longer said faggot.