I'm not homophobic anymore, but my father still is & I still remember my backward thinking from my teenage years.

1. Anal sex is something I found disgusting. I still have less than 0 interest in it, but I don't give a flying f. about others doing it, apparently hetero anal it's extraordinarily popular in my country, to the point that people wouldn't believe it.

2. The smell, as a teenage boy I found the odor of other teenage boys disgusting. Thinking about someone smelling like that touching me or me touching them made me shiver. Now as an adult maybe my nose is worse, or adults just smell better, but I don't get disgusted by such thoughts anymore.

3. The silliest point of them all is that I was afraid of a gay guy hitting on me or even courting me. (I know now it's ridiculous, but in my defense kids are stupid)

4. The most important point of them all is learned behavior, just hate who or what your friends and family hate, the be social within your tribe.

I’ve watched grown-ass men bark “f@gg0+,

Oh yeah, I've gotten that a lot myself. (well in my early twenties at least) Mostly as a criticism to my fondness of certain genres of music & romantic movies. The real wakeup call had been actually interacting with openly gay people on a daily basis for a while.