I had Aunts who were born around 1900 who in their 80s didn’t even know there was such a thing as homosexuals. They grew up in New York but society was very different then and ladies (and they were proper ladies) were protected from such nastiness. Most nice families didn’t even say “darn.”
I’m getting close to 50, and I think I was in high school before I heard the word “gay” or even learned that there were such people as homosexuals.
(That said, I knew what a “perv” was from an early age - in terms of adults who prey on children - and if Paterno is claiming ignorance at his age, that’s ridiculous. He just didn’t want to roil the waters, especially since the guy involved was someone he knew.)