Everyone Gets Teased

"Haas, what are we gonna' do next year", I would yell across the quad back in high school.
"I don't know. Let's come back and be teachers AIDS!!!", he would reply.
"What? I can't hear you. Maybe we need some hearing AIDS!!!", I would yell as guys we suspected of being gay would cross our path.

The thing is, most of the straight guys on the sports teams would act even more gay than those who were actually gay.
"Come here, bitch.", I would say to one quarterback or the other of the football team.
Games of grab ass were also common.
Players dressing like cheerleaders was a yearly event.

At that age - kids are hypersensitive.
Everything is blown out of proportion.
Something as minor as a zit would ruin ones day or week.
Something as major as being gay - or even being suspected of being gay - could ruin someones life.

"Fag", "Pillow Biter", "Rump Rider", "Boody Bandit", "Butt Pirate", "Fudge Packer", "He plays for the San Francisco Sodomites" (or "West Hollywood Weenie Wackers"), whatever... .
The euphemisms for being gay seem endless.
But what is the difference between being teased for being gay and being fat?
Or being gay and being poor?
Or being gay and being Italian, Polish, Jewish or Black?
Is "Gay the new Black"?
Is there the same shame in being Black as there is in being gay?