Yeah, I didn't even know what "gay" actually meant until I was like 13-14 years old. It was just teenage vernacular for "stupid" or "lame". "Man, I fucking hate this math class, the way they do the testing is so gay"- that's just how we spoke. Story time: I had a teacher (we'll call him Mr. M) in my school who was in the Marine Corps, briefly- he completed boot camp, went to officer training, and got injured so badly there that he was discharged; he did however keep that military attitude, and would regularly scream at people and be very harsh with discipline. One day in the early 2000s, I was walking through the halls in between classes with some friends. I replied to something someone said with "Really? That's gay" or something along those lines. Mr. M happened to be within earshot. He storms out of his classroom, spots me, and practically shoves me up against the locker (he didn't touch me, just got into my face, almost like a Drill Instructor would- but I was about a foot taller than him) and starts screaming at me about how I can't say that word. I lied and said "I was just repeating what someone else said", he told me "IT DOESN'T MATTER, YOU DON'T TALK ABOUT PEOPLE LIKE THAT" or something; it made a real big scene. That might've been my first small dosage of red pill. It stuck with me, it had been the only time I'd been screamed at or even reprimanded in high school (I was honor roll, stayed out of trouble); "Why is that so offensive that it set Mr. M off like that? Everyone says 'that is gay'." But it was the timing- I think gay marriage was a hot topic at the time, and my washed out failed-Marine teacher felt like he had to do a sort of "proto-virtue signal", where he screamed about how it's wrong to call things gay. He was a champion for the faggots! Hilariously, after I graduated, I went on to join the USMC. I never intended on becoming an officer, but I had a rather successful career as a Marine. I remember coming home from boot camp, I went and visited some of my teachers (some of them wanted my boot graduation photo to hang in their classrooms), and I wanted to find Mr. M so badly so I could call him gay. Unfortunately, he wasn't there that day or at the time I was there... but I did leave a grad photo of mine on his desk. I have crushing remorse for at least not writing on the back of it "Ur gay lol", but I suppose I was a bit more mature by then. I heard from a younger friend of mine that he placed my photo up on the classroom TV, next to two other Marine's grad photos. I wonder if it's still there?