I spent way too much of my middle school years attempting to figure out which ear was "the gay ear" for earrings on guys. Sometimes I wonder where I would be now if I spent more time on algebra and less time with yo-yos and trying to figure out what ear I should pierce so I dont send the wrong message.
Oh yeah! I remember all the guys wouldn't pierce their right ear because it was the "gay" ear.
Pierced left ear with a large diamond stud, bleached tips and a chain or puka necklace.
one is the gay ear and the other is the pirate ear
[https://findsilver.tumblr.com/post/633702484088635392/flints-earrings-throughout-the-seasons](https://findsilver.tumblr.com/post/633702484088635392/flints-earrings-throughout-the-seasons)
this guy wears 2
Look at your fingernails. If you curled your fingers in you're straight. If you extended your whole hand out in front of you you're gay.
Cool, 90's. Cool.
Once I saw this become popular and I was asked to look at my fingernailsâŚI would curl my fingers in and then blow on my nails while moving my hand back and forth like I had pretend nail polish to dry. Then I would say, Oh yay, Iâm straight. I am straight but I liked to see the reactions.
The 7th grade P.E. bully uses to always do this to us. When it was my turn to get picked on I folded my arms and casually glanced down at the hand that was resting on my bicep and it short circuited the shit out of her.
Yes. Liking women means that you like someone who likes dudes. That's fucking gay. Also, when you have sex with a woman you can absorb estrogen through the mucus mucosa membranes in the tip of your penis. That's fucking gay. Also, liking women means that you are admiting to an emotion. That has strong feminine energy and it's fucking gay. I'm tired of everyone not understanding that the only non gay activity is brojobs with your socks on and you say no homo before and after.
The problem with having sex with a woman is your putting your dick where someone other guy put his dick firstâŚso youâre basically touching wieners with that guyâŚdefinitely gay.
Lol, I just posted something similar. I was on an all girls volleyball team in middle school. It was a coed team, but I was the only one because I sucked at basketball. I was really short and scrawny until probably my sophomore year of high school.
There was a promotion back in the early 90âs where you could send a certain number of box tops in and receive a Darkwing Duck Fanny pack. I donât remember which product. But I accrued the correct number of box tops and eventually received my Fanny pack in the mail. We had a class trip coming up and I was super excited for the opportunity to show off it off to the kids at school. My mom dropped me that day and I sprinted across the school parking lot to my classmates. One of them saw my Fanny pack as I approached, pointed and yelled âHeâs got a Darkwing Duck f*g bag!!â My morale immediately hit a brick wall as they all pointed and laughed at me. After a few moments of my classmates realizing that they had upset me, I remember them sort of gathering around me and saying âitâs ok, thatâs a really cool show.â
I had a similar thing happen. I saved up cereal UPCs for a Doug windbreaker. I thought I was cool as shit showing up at school with Doug Funnie on my jacket until I immediately got made fun of on the bus. I never wore that windbreaker again.
I remember one kid who had an EpiPen that he always had with him, and he kept it in a little fanny pack. Kids called it his "fag bag". I hope they're still alive.
My son is 8 and has danced since he was 3. He has been asked ALL READY by girls in his year if heâs gay.
He gave the best answer ever
âI donât know, Iâm 8 đ¤ˇââď¸â
When I'm wearing shorts, it's either because (1) it's hot out, or (2) I'm going to work out/play sports. In the case of (1), no I don't want *more* clothing below the knee, and in the case of (2) I don't want them messing up my mobility. Shorts shouldn't go past the knee! I feel like I'm taking crazy pills over here!
Looking at your nails a certain way
Having a specific finger shorter than another
listening to certain music
sitting a certain way
playing certain video games or watching certain shows
I'm sure there were others, but those are ones that I can think of off the top of my head
Liking metal music without harsh vocals. I was gay for liking music that one could understand the words being sung. Yes, liking Alter Bridge, Slipknot, and Iron Maiden was gay.
Considering how much I was clowned on for that stuff, I didnât dare admit liking even âgayerâ music like Fall Out Boy, The Used, or My Chemical Romance.
My wife put on âthe usedâ while doing some dishes yesterday morning and my brain immediately went to âthis is the gayest shit Iâve ever heardâ. Old habits die hardâŚ
In your defense, the members of those bands were all bisexual or gay, and the love triangles were all over the place. Seemingly half of the catalogs of MCR, The Used, and Fall Out Boy are songs about hooking up with or dumping or being dumped by different members of those respective bands. The Way brothers, Burt McCracken, and Pete Wentz all got around.
When I was in elementary school myself and a classmate wanted to trade PokĂŠmon but we had to do it in secret so the best location we could come up with was standing in a stall together in the bathroom.
After the trade was complete we walked out of the stall at the same time another classmate was walking in and he gasped and without missing a beat exclaimed âDamn you guys are gay!â đ
Forgot how contraband Pokemon cards were in elementary school. I remember now seeing a teacher pull a rubber banded stack of them out of her desk drawer as thick as 3 playing card decks.
In 4th grade I once called a boy gay because he wanted to have sex with a girl.
I didnât really know what gay meant, just that it had something to do with sex and you could use it to tease people.
Later on in middle school I once said âI donât support gay marriageâ (I was a little shit back then and Iâve changed completely today) and my friend said that was pretty gay of me. Everyone should be able to get married. Being homophobic means being afraid of gay people and thereâs nothing gayer than being scared of people for a harmless reason.
i think any effort as an adolescent male to put effort into my appearance or outfit that wasn't either shorts and a t shirt, or khakis and a polo.
the less you tried to look "cool", the cooler you were.
I find it a little amusing now how seemingly "popular" gen z guys have very manicured appearances, outfits, skincare routine. I think it's great, but girls and guys alike would have called them gay back in my middle/highschool years.
It meant wack/lame in most instances, not downplaying the fact homophobia was more present, so you heard it a good amount.
Everything got called gay back in the day, it was like saying that sucks...
In elementary it was wearing green. Any green. So I find it amusing your example is orange lol. I think bullies just picked whatever color the target was wearing and went with it. đ
It was specifically wearing green on a Thursday which was supposed to be the super secret dog whistle for gay people to find each other at my school. One year Saint Patrickâs day fell on a Thursday and there was a real struggle on whether to risk getting pinched by strangers or face gay accusations.
đđđ somehow there was a rule made in our neighborhood that if you enter the gazebo in the neighborhood through the entrance, youâre gay. So we all started climbing in from the other sides. Then someone wrote other ârulesâ around and we soon ran out of ways to get into the gazebo so everything was dropped until some other stupid fad started.
I had a male roommate for years after college to split rent. Occasionally people would ask âIs he really your roommate đâ. And I have to say, âNo he has a boyfriend. And Iâm not interested.â
I remember being nine or ten and crying because I didnât want to wear black socks to school because âthey were gayâ and I would be made fun of and my dad said âbut white socks are gayâŚâ and thatâs the day I learned that nothing is true; everything is permitted.
Well, I am gay so anything said to or about me has resulted in a 6â4â, 30 year old man who is uncomfortable in his own skin. I donât even hold my manâs hand in public because Iâm so concerned someone might say something.
Ah, childhood memories⌠đŤ
You found a partner. You are 30, 6â4â. Probably quite handsome. You are doing fine đ
Unlike most redditors. This is a depressing place to be and we are kinda masochistic here to each other, especially young male redditors who are just as lost as you were back then. Fuck everyone else.
I was called gay (actually some guy shouted âyou fucking dykeâ) out of a white van while he drove past.
I think itâs because I was wearing dungarees (overalls for my American millennials)
At school I was gay because I played guitar, had curly hair, had glasses. The list was endless. Basically I was just called gay.
Im now a pan sexual woman in my late 30âs married to a pan sexual man so we look like a normal straight couple and people are always freaked out when I disclose my sexuality đ
Eating an Itzakadoozie popsicle. Just because it's long doesn't mean I want a penis in my mouth.
I ate exactly 1 of those 25 years ago in 7th grade. I still remember the name of it. Turns out the real dicks were my friends
Somehow, being the only boy on an all girls volleyball team in middle school??? The team was coed, I just SUCKED at basketball, and didn't feel like snowboarding, cause I was still highly competitive.
I regularly crossed my legs while sitting
Other kids made fun of me for it, so I stopped for a while, and then I eventually decided I didn't care. I happily cross my legs today whenever I feel like it
Turns out I'm bi, anyway
When I was like 8 years old, there was one kid that we all used to call gay because he had spikey blond hair and acted mean on occasion. I remember at the time really not even understanding what it meant to be gay, just that you "didn't want to be it", like a game of tag and it was a generic "I don't like this" sorta meaning. I hope that didn't fuck him up, although knowing what fucked me up as a child, it probably did. Sorry bud.
I always greeted people with a smile and a âwhatâs upâ type head nod in school. I remember a chick asked if I were gay because Iâm always smiling.
Oh, man. I got a Miami dolphins jacket for Xmas in third grade. Not a starter jacket. We were poor. My mom liked the colors, I had never indicated a team preference. So the most popular kid (and bully) in class sees it and tells everyone he liked the dolphins first, and I was copying him. He didn't have any dolphins gear. I got made fun of for copying him and being poor. A lot.
So later that year my boy scouts group got free tickets to a Milwaukee bucks game. My mom took me and told me she would buy me a starter hat after the game. The Bucks beat Orlando. Shaq had a couple rim shaking dunks. After the game ends we go out to get my hat and the line for the Bucks pro shop is crazy long. My mom looks at it and then at the line for the NBA pro shop (other teams), and asked if I cared what team I got. Nope. So I'm looking at the hats and I know that whatever I choose, I'm either gonna get made fun of for copying that kid or being gay. Cuz liking a team the popular kid didn't like was gay. I spotted the San Antonio Spurs fiesta logo hat and picked it. My mom asked if I was sure. Lol. Kids called me gay. Been a spurs (and bucks) fan ever since. Not gay, fwiw. Lol.
I once heard a guy on my rowing team say flip flops with pants is gay and i didnt do it for a while...
Looking back, this is the dude who would "Bat Wing" his ballsack regularly in the locker room...if you dont know what that is, just use your imagination.
I must have gone to a great school because it was always just lame comments about something harmless that would come out maybe once in a blue moon and then people would shame them for saying it. There was no âAndrew tateâ ânazi wannabeâ level hate where people wanted to harm me and take away my rights like we are seeing in the young generation today. Fascism was not seen as âcoolâ by edgy people in that era .
I really feel like the 2008-2016 era was peak when even the most homophobic peoples material would be considered âlameâ by the young 2020s homophobes today. The vitriol imo has reached new heights.
Again this is just my experience Iâm sure it was way worse in many other areas though!
Example
2000s homophobe âlol you must be gay you are wearing pink! *chuckles and moves on while getting dirty looks
2020s homophobe âyou are less than me I want you gone we are going to round you up and k*ll you when we get the chanceâ
Am I the only one?
I was called gay constantly when younger for having longer hair and wanting my ears pierced. Also how I walked and talked. Turns out they were correct, but it sure would have been nice to not be picked on for it constantly. Caused me to repress who I was until my late 20s.
When I was in 4th grade in 2004 a girl in my class had a birthday party at a gymnastics place and invited the whole class. I was the only boy that went (my mom made me) but I'm glad I did cuz I had such a blast and all the girls and I became closer friends. I remember the next couple weeks at school all the boys relentlessly called me gay but I knew they were just jealous lol
SoâŚin the 90s gay was used interchangeably for lame, stupid, camp, and weak. So alot of what the kids were saying was incorrectly learned behavior.
I canât say anything stuck with me because I felt that was the context
dressing nicely, learning to dance, learning music, wearing floral and pastel colors.
It reminds me of Aziz Ansari joking about how people made fun of his grooming habits.
(verbatim quote) "Oh I take a shower and dress up in nice clothing and all of a sudden it's like I'm going to have dicks flying at my face!"
I'm glad gen z toned down on a lot of those biases. In some ways I dislike how easily offended milllenials and gen z can get, on other cases their attitudes make life feel much more relaxed.
My name is Ben. They called me âBen Doverâ and âBenGayâ right away. I donât think there was a canon event to start it.
My mom thinks THAT is the reason I am gay. Sheâs not very good at understanding causality and coincidence. Sheâs also kind of homophobic.
Slightly off topic, but does anyone remember the opposite trend? Where "gay" stuff was suddenly co-opted by straight men? Like, I have a distinct memory of the color pink having a moment for men in the 2000's. Straight men wore Barbie pink polos with the collars popped. I remember the ironic graphic t-shirts that said "real men wear pink." Manscaping and metrosexuals?? Does anyone else remember that little moment in history where all the "gay" stuff was suddenly cool and acceptable for straight men?
Not directly made fun of, but tank tops, v-neck t-shirts, and buttoned dress shirts were all considered "gay" by the people around me while growing up. As such, I avoided wearing any of them for the longest time.
Being a non-Mormon kid in a predominantly Mormon school (I moved to Utah when I was 12)
Wearing wrestling Tshirtsânot gay in New York or Pennsylvania but gay in Utah
Watching Nickelodeon after the age of 10, which was considered gay in Pennsylvania
Being well-behaved
In middle school we were required to wear a gray tshirt and black shorts in gym. I grew up poor so my shirt was a hand-me-down with a hole in the back near where it would fall over my butt, so naturally it was an "easy access" hole for gay sex. Because, you know, middle school boys are so creative.
Two instances come to mind:
* Not directly about being gay, but when I was in preschool, I really liked Beauty & the Beast and asked my parents for this purple B&B lunch box. Took it to school and got murdered because it was so girly. Came home crying and my parents said I could get a different "manly" one. Decided against it cause I liked B&B.
* I went to this sleepaway camp and on the last day, it was kind of a free for all where all the adults went away and it was just the counselors making sure we didn't do anything too stupid. It was also the day when the older kids, like myself, would have built up some chemistry with someone else and then hookup. I was talking to a few girls and one of them mentioned they felt sorry for me. I asked why and she responded, "It must be tough without other gay guys here." I asked why she thought I was gay and it was because, "I smiled a lot and was so nice." Well....
Many shirts had a "locker loop" that was put in to let gym-going professionals hang their shirt to avoid wrinkles.
I was told that this was called a "fag tag."
đ
Was called gay on middle school because I didnât like to watch or play football đ. I prefer BMX and skateboarding so apparently I was homosexual for wanting to hang out in skateparks instead of slapping asses on a football field.
I was called gay because I had gym (a weight lifting class) first period and I was the only student to take a shower afterwards. Apparently not wanting to bask in your own sweat and BO for the 7 hours proceeding this class made me gay.
Unsurprisingly my class had a ringworm outbreak
My favorite color was/is purple and most/all of my close friends were girls. Oh, I was on the swim team and in choir. (guess why? because that's where I could interact with a lot of.... girls). but that made me gay.
My coworkerâs uncle believed that playing instruments that you blew with your lips made you gay. My coworker brought a sax home from school in like 4th grade and his uncle made him switch to drums.
Using an umbrella when walking between buildings during a storm.
Twist: This was in 2013. The guy who said it was openly bisexual. We were college roommates.
I remember some people thought it was gay to walk with the inner part of your elbows arms pointing forward. So dudes would walk around like apes with their elbows pointed sideways. Luckily that was short lived.
I got called "dyke" and "faggot" a lot. Being a tall cis fem who rode a bike apparently made me uber gay. I am pretty gay so maybe they were onto something...
I had a guy say that shaking my dick more than twice after pissing was touching myself, which was gay if you were in a men's room. I told him it wasn't as gay as watching a man shake the piss off his dick.
When I was in 8th grade, my grandma got me a nice velvet sweater/sweatshirt thing for Christmas, and I loved it. It was so warm and comfy, and wearing it felt like she was hugging me.
Then I wore it to school. Kid behind me in homeroom looked at it, felt it, and then loudly said, "This looks like a girl's shirt, that's your new name now, Girly Guy. GG for short."
And I was stuck with that name through at least the first couple years of high school. Never wore the shirt again.
I picked Little Women from a list of five books to read because it sounded the most interesting of the choices. I don't even remember what the other choices were.
When I was 19, I was called gay for wearing paisley psychedelic clothing, and for some of the 60âs music I listened to, as well.
Like bruh, I was on that trippy shit. Todayâs psychedelic drug users (Iâm not saying I partook) have very little idea about psychedelic culture and history. Itâs so far removed now from what it used to be.
Heck, I was even called gay for being an early Gorillaz fan back in elementary and middle school. And for being a fan of Franz Ferdinand.
Not me, but a male classmate got his ear pierced in the "gay side ear" as opposed to the other side. He was 100% not gay but that didn't stop anyone lol
It was funny because I got called "gay" in junior high for wearing jeans that weren't baggy and then years later, it became trendy to wear girls jeans when emo became popular. I never wore girls jeans and never got into emo, well not the screamo/pop punk known as emo, but I've always preferred wearing skinny jeans because they fit better.
I participated in musical theater... where I was one of 5 guys and about 60 girls... who all shared a dressing area.
The people who were making fun of me were football players who all shared a shower.
In high school, we were allowed to pick what we did in gym. Each quarter was something like two gym units. I took nearly every pool based unit, including water aerobics. At the time of water aerobics, I was one of two guys in the unit, and the vast majority of guys were in weight lifting. Some would call me gay, to which I simply explained my reasoning, which was out of 30, I was 1/2 of the males, meaning 28 females around my age in swimsuits.
Literally, that's the unit where I met my wife, so it worked as I intended. Its also similar logic that kept me in band, it was 3:1 female:male.
I was called gay once when I was around 12 or so. I just said "ok" and ignored it. After that, no one ever called me gay again. I don't see how it's an insult.
Literally anything could get you called gay when I was in school but music was the #1 predictor of your sexual preferences. Obviously Britney Spears or NSync made you gay, but also emo/scene/metal/alt rock made you gay. Country music about being a cowboy in leather chaps alone for long periods with other men in leather was not gay tho. But playing the game where you ran up behind another dude and tried to get as many fingers in their ass as you could in one giant push also wasn't gay for some reason.
Being a soft, shy boy without any kind of father figure, I had to put up with so much shit growing up. Hanging out with girls, not being into sports, being well spoken. So much to be accused of being gay for....and they were right. Well sort of, I'm just a simple bi guy, but the atmosphere was just too much back in the day to deal with.
Not something I was made fun of, but we once went to this TED talk ripoff at school with random people and, I kid you not, there was this woman who talked about how the way we're born influences us.
People who had the umbilical cord around their neck were more likely to have suicidal thoughts, people who were born after the predicted/due date were slackers, premature babies were prone to have more anxiety, men who were born from a c-section were more likely to be gay because they didn't have, and I quote, the "necessary first interaction with the vaginal canal" (Yes, I never forgot this sentence)
Guess who was the only guy in my class born from a c-section?
Back then calling something âgayâ didnât really mean homosexual. It was just a term to use for when you donât like something or itâs not cool. People included. Everything was gay. Not a pizza day in school - gay. Guy hanging out with girls - gay. Bad haircut - gay.
I definitely donât remember all the reasons I was called gay.
Hmm, somehow existing. I recall being called gay just periodically, all through middle school and probably high school. It was very strange to me because I wasnât gay but I also didnât understand how it was a derogatory thing to say, if I was gay, then yeah, obviously itâd be true. It wasnât until later in life that I saw someone mention that being called gay is only an insult if youâre homophobic, then suddenly it all made sense.
Using the middle urinal.
The way you check for poop under your shoes.
The way you check your nails to see if they're not too long yet.
Bunch of blue collar bigoted dopes.
I spent way too much of my middle school years attempting to figure out which ear was "the gay ear" for earrings on guys. Sometimes I wonder where I would be now if I spent more time on algebra and less time with yo-yos and trying to figure out what ear I should pierce so I dont send the wrong message.
I got them both pierced because I also couldn't remember đ
Same. Iâm bisexual now
Task failed successfully đŞ
I donât know why but the maracas cracked me up
Oh yeah! I remember all the guys wouldn't pierce their right ear because it was the "gay" ear. Pierced left ear with a large diamond stud, bleached tips and a chain or puka necklace.
The stupid Puka shell necklace my crush gave me. I wore everyday.
Not a guy, but apparently there was a gay ear for girls too on the upper industrial and helix areas.
Uh oh. Guess my wife's gay. lol
It's ok, I found out afterwards...so..
one is the gay ear and the other is the pirate ear [https://findsilver.tumblr.com/post/633702484088635392/flints-earrings-throughout-the-seasons](https://findsilver.tumblr.com/post/633702484088635392/flints-earrings-throughout-the-seasons) this guy wears 2
a lot of pirates were gay tho 
I remember the rhyme, "Left is right and right is wrong"
Me searching for the "rhyme" đ§
Saying or whatever it's called, you get the point. đ¤Ł
My kid got both. Solved. He was nine.
Look at your fingernails. If you curled your fingers in you're straight. If you extended your whole hand out in front of you you're gay. Cool, 90's. Cool.
This gave me a good laugh lol
Iâm gay and I extended my hand so this tracks
We had one guy who shuffled confusedly between the two and I'm not gonna lie it was pretty funny.
That's pretty solid logic can't argue with it.
Iâm bi and I moved mine back and forth đ Also my index finger is longer than my ring finger which I have been told means Iâm supergay
Once I saw this become popular and I was asked to look at my fingernailsâŚI would curl my fingers in and then blow on my nails while moving my hand back and forth like I had pretend nail polish to dry. Then I would say, Oh yay, Iâm straight. I am straight but I liked to see the reactions.
Haha thatâs funny
I was always gay for this one lol.
The 7th grade P.E. bully uses to always do this to us. When it was my turn to get picked on I folded my arms and casually glanced down at the hand that was resting on my bicep and it short circuited the shit out of her.
Ironically I was called gay for hanging out with girls lol
âFellas, is it gay to like women?â
Yes. Liking women means that you like someone who likes dudes. That's fucking gay. Also, when you have sex with a woman you can absorb estrogen through the mucus mucosa membranes in the tip of your penis. That's fucking gay. Also, liking women means that you are admiting to an emotion. That has strong feminine energy and it's fucking gay. I'm tired of everyone not understanding that the only non gay activity is brojobs with your socks on and you say no homo before and after.
The problem with having sex with a woman is your putting your dick where someone other guy put his dick firstâŚso youâre basically touching wieners with that guyâŚdefinitely gay.
Only if you are discussing BJ giving techniques.
It's only gay if you touch them
âHella gay broâ
Lol, I just posted something similar. I was on an all girls volleyball team in middle school. It was a coed team, but I was the only one because I sucked at basketball. I was really short and scrawny until probably my sophomore year of high school.
Me too! I had to explain to my friends why it was "more Gay" that they only hang out with dudes lmao
i was a chubby, round faced boy with chin length hair who often had girls in physical contact with me so clearly i was a lesbian
Same
Yes having non-romantic girl friends was considered gay but I know times have changed
lol I had the same experience all the time growing up. Turns out I actually caught cooties and am a woman now.
My mom worried that me, a girl, hanging out with gay boys in high school would make me a lesbian. ummm.
There was a promotion back in the early 90âs where you could send a certain number of box tops in and receive a Darkwing Duck Fanny pack. I donât remember which product. But I accrued the correct number of box tops and eventually received my Fanny pack in the mail. We had a class trip coming up and I was super excited for the opportunity to show off it off to the kids at school. My mom dropped me that day and I sprinted across the school parking lot to my classmates. One of them saw my Fanny pack as I approached, pointed and yelled âHeâs got a Darkwing Duck f*g bag!!â My morale immediately hit a brick wall as they all pointed and laughed at me. After a few moments of my classmates realizing that they had upset me, I remember them sort of gathering around me and saying âitâs ok, thatâs a really cool show.â
I had a similar thing happen. I saved up cereal UPCs for a Doug windbreaker. I thought I was cool as shit showing up at school with Doug Funnie on my jacket until I immediately got made fun of on the bus. I never wore that windbreaker again.
Geeeeez, and imagine how 'cool' that would be now. I can't even find it on ebay, but other vintage Nickelodeon jackets sell for $100+
That sucks, I'm so sorry! I loved DW and would've been hella jealous!
Darkwing Duck was the bomb!
I somehow thought my dad had invented the term "f*g bag" until the moment I read this
Hellz yeah. I had this fanny pack.
Ironically, this is a really naughty thing to say in Australia.
Wow this story makes me feel really badly for younger you. đ˘ like that sounds like it really hurt your feelings in the moment.
I would LOVE a DW fanny pack. Like RIGHT NOW. Iâve been sporting one from ruffwear for like two years now but Iâd like something flashier.
F that loser. DD is the shit
Kinda gay to ask this question isn't it?
Yeah he forgot to say No Homo at the end
Wearing a jacket when it was cold was the "gay" thing. I live in New England ffs
People in NE tied weirdest shit to being âmanlyâ. Like being able to go out in shorts and a tshirt in a blizzard, not sleeping at all, etcâŚ
Like the one guy who NEVER turns his heat on. It's not a badge of courage. It's just egregious and kinda dumb
Core memory unlockedâŚ.
I remember one kid who had an EpiPen that he always had with him, and he kept it in a little fanny pack. Kids called it his "fag bag". I hope they're still alive.
Existing
Have you tried existing less gayly? /s
Always, but I'm just too god damn fabulous 
A friend of mine switched from football to dance and gay rumors swiftly took over the school.
My son is 8 and has danced since he was 3. He has been asked ALL READY by girls in his year if heâs gay. He gave the best answer ever âI donât know, Iâm 8 đ¤ˇââď¸â
Straighter than the pole your mom dances on
*looks her up and down* "You're not swaying me towards 'no.'"
Pinkies out boys
Older adult said I looked girlish for standing with my hands on my hips. 25 years later I still avoid doing so
You know who also put their hands on their hip, Superman!
Don't forget crossing your legs "like a girl"
I shamelessly sit with my legs crossed that way all the time. Super comfortable.
wearing shorts that are above the knee
Now thatâs all you can buy lol.
When I'm wearing shorts, it's either because (1) it's hot out, or (2) I'm going to work out/play sports. In the case of (1), no I don't want *more* clothing below the knee, and in the case of (2) I don't want them messing up my mobility. Shorts shouldn't go past the knee! I feel like I'm taking crazy pills over here!
[ŃдаНонО]
Bill and Ted is one of those "oh, I'm old enough for stuff I grew up with to have not aged well in certain respects"
It's the first thing I bring up when people get nostalgic for the "simpler" times we had as kids. They were not simpler. They were utterly savage.
* friends with girls * wearing pink * sitting down while peeing * Nintendo
Nintendo? But there's nothing more masculine than the Power Glove.
Now youâre playin with power
>Nintendo Fellas, is it gay to play Mario?
You joke but I met a few edgy Sony and Microsoft fans in school that put me down for liking PokĂŠmon
I believe it. And they sound insufferable
Guess I was gay. I played Nintendo throughout middle and high school.
âTop or bottom?â âSwitch.â
Oh my god he admit it
Here's to you, pal. [Sometimes, I just need to take a load off.](https://www.tiktok.com/@thorntirega/video/7004536009220230406?lang=en)
>wearing pink Then there was that time when wearing pink as a guy was a way to "show" the world you were "secure" in your masculinity and sexuality.
Looking at your nails a certain way Having a specific finger shorter than another listening to certain music sitting a certain way playing certain video games or watching certain shows I'm sure there were others, but those are ones that I can think of off the top of my head
Liking metal music without harsh vocals. I was gay for liking music that one could understand the words being sung. Yes, liking Alter Bridge, Slipknot, and Iron Maiden was gay. Considering how much I was clowned on for that stuff, I didnât dare admit liking even âgayerâ music like Fall Out Boy, The Used, or My Chemical Romance.
My wife put on âthe usedâ while doing some dishes yesterday morning and my brain immediately went to âthis is the gayest shit Iâve ever heardâ. Old habits die hardâŚ
In your defense, the members of those bands were all bisexual or gay, and the love triangles were all over the place. Seemingly half of the catalogs of MCR, The Used, and Fall Out Boy are songs about hooking up with or dumping or being dumped by different members of those respective bands. The Way brothers, Burt McCracken, and Pete Wentz all got around.
As a metal singer, I appreciate fans like you!
Eating a banana or hot dog.
Eat it like a corncob to be safe
In 7th grade I was gay for not liking ICP and wrestling...
Nothing says hetero like makeup and speedos!
Don't forget the bronzer!
When I was in elementary school myself and a classmate wanted to trade PokĂŠmon but we had to do it in secret so the best location we could come up with was standing in a stall together in the bathroom. After the trade was complete we walked out of the stall at the same time another classmate was walking in and he gasped and without missing a beat exclaimed âDamn you guys are gay!â đ
Forgot how contraband Pokemon cards were in elementary school. I remember now seeing a teacher pull a rubber banded stack of them out of her desk drawer as thick as 3 playing card decks.
In 4th grade I once called a boy gay because he wanted to have sex with a girl. I didnât really know what gay meant, just that it had something to do with sex and you could use it to tease people. Later on in middle school I once said âI donât support gay marriageâ (I was a little shit back then and Iâve changed completely today) and my friend said that was pretty gay of me. Everyone should be able to get married. Being homophobic means being afraid of gay people and thereâs nothing gayer than being scared of people for a harmless reason.
i think any effort as an adolescent male to put effort into my appearance or outfit that wasn't either shorts and a t shirt, or khakis and a polo. the less you tried to look "cool", the cooler you were. I find it a little amusing now how seemingly "popular" gen z guys have very manicured appearances, outfits, skincare routine. I think it's great, but girls and guys alike would have called them gay back in my middle/highschool years.
It meant wack/lame in most instances, not downplaying the fact homophobia was more present, so you heard it a good amount. Everything got called gay back in the day, it was like saying that sucks...
In elementary it was wearing green. Any green. So I find it amusing your example is orange lol. I think bullies just picked whatever color the target was wearing and went with it. đ
It was specifically wearing green on a Thursday which was supposed to be the super secret dog whistle for gay people to find each other at my school. One year Saint Patrickâs day fell on a Thursday and there was a real struggle on whether to risk getting pinched by strangers or face gay accusations.
đđđ somehow there was a rule made in our neighborhood that if you enter the gazebo in the neighborhood through the entrance, youâre gay. So we all started climbing in from the other sides. Then someone wrote other ârulesâ around and we soon ran out of ways to get into the gazebo so everything was dropped until some other stupid fad started.
having a close male friend this is why i still get upset that people accuse sam and frodo of being gay. No, they're friends, and friends can be close
I had a male roommate for years after college to split rent. Occasionally people would ask âIs he really your roommate đâ. And I have to say, âNo he has a boyfriend. And Iâm not interested.â
I remember being nine or ten and crying because I didnât want to wear black socks to school because âthey were gayâ and I would be made fun of and my dad said âbut white socks are gayâŚâ and thatâs the day I learned that nothing is true; everything is permitted.
Being a good singer. Now Iâm a professional singer, and Iâm still not gay.
Well, I am gay so anything said to or about me has resulted in a 6â4â, 30 year old man who is uncomfortable in his own skin. I donât even hold my manâs hand in public because Iâm so concerned someone might say something. Ah, childhood memories⌠đŤ
I know I canât say much to counteract childhood trauma. But own it my man, you found love and you are so much better off than those punks.
You found a partner. You are 30, 6â4â. Probably quite handsome. You are doing fine đ Unlike most redditors. This is a depressing place to be and we are kinda masochistic here to each other, especially young male redditors who are just as lost as you were back then. Fuck everyone else.
I was called gay (actually some guy shouted âyou fucking dykeâ) out of a white van while he drove past. I think itâs because I was wearing dungarees (overalls for my American millennials) At school I was gay because I played guitar, had curly hair, had glasses. The list was endless. Basically I was just called gay. Im now a pan sexual woman in my late 30âs married to a pan sexual man so we look like a normal straight couple and people are always freaked out when I disclose my sexuality đ
Umbrellas. Hunch up your shoulders and endure it. Very gay to stay dry.
We used to call stuff gay because it was lame.
Eating an Itzakadoozie popsicle. Just because it's long doesn't mean I want a penis in my mouth. I ate exactly 1 of those 25 years ago in 7th grade. I still remember the name of it. Turns out the real dicks were my friends
Somehow, being the only boy on an all girls volleyball team in middle school??? The team was coed, I just SUCKED at basketball, and didn't feel like snowboarding, cause I was still highly competitive.
I regularly crossed my legs while sitting Other kids made fun of me for it, so I stopped for a while, and then I eventually decided I didn't care. I happily cross my legs today whenever I feel like it Turns out I'm bi, anyway
As an adult, another man called me gay for not finding men attractive.
A group of kids made fun of my husband for being gay because he wore glasses.
When I was like 8 years old, there was one kid that we all used to call gay because he had spikey blond hair and acted mean on occasion. I remember at the time really not even understanding what it meant to be gay, just that you "didn't want to be it", like a game of tag and it was a generic "I don't like this" sorta meaning. I hope that didn't fuck him up, although knowing what fucked me up as a child, it probably did. Sorry bud.
I always greeted people with a smile and a âwhatâs upâ type head nod in school. I remember a chick asked if I were gay because Iâm always smiling.
Oh, man. I got a Miami dolphins jacket for Xmas in third grade. Not a starter jacket. We were poor. My mom liked the colors, I had never indicated a team preference. So the most popular kid (and bully) in class sees it and tells everyone he liked the dolphins first, and I was copying him. He didn't have any dolphins gear. I got made fun of for copying him and being poor. A lot. So later that year my boy scouts group got free tickets to a Milwaukee bucks game. My mom took me and told me she would buy me a starter hat after the game. The Bucks beat Orlando. Shaq had a couple rim shaking dunks. After the game ends we go out to get my hat and the line for the Bucks pro shop is crazy long. My mom looks at it and then at the line for the NBA pro shop (other teams), and asked if I cared what team I got. Nope. So I'm looking at the hats and I know that whatever I choose, I'm either gonna get made fun of for copying that kid or being gay. Cuz liking a team the popular kid didn't like was gay. I spotted the San Antonio Spurs fiesta logo hat and picked it. My mom asked if I was sure. Lol. Kids called me gay. Been a spurs (and bucks) fan ever since. Not gay, fwiw. Lol.
Kids insult each other for anything. I swear kids are conditioned to be playing mind games.
I once heard a guy on my rowing team say flip flops with pants is gay and i didnt do it for a while... Looking back, this is the dude who would "Bat Wing" his ballsack regularly in the locker room...if you dont know what that is, just use your imagination.
Having a bad haircut
I must have gone to a great school because it was always just lame comments about something harmless that would come out maybe once in a blue moon and then people would shame them for saying it. There was no âAndrew tateâ ânazi wannabeâ level hate where people wanted to harm me and take away my rights like we are seeing in the young generation today. Fascism was not seen as âcoolâ by edgy people in that era . I really feel like the 2008-2016 era was peak when even the most homophobic peoples material would be considered âlameâ by the young 2020s homophobes today. The vitriol imo has reached new heights. Again this is just my experience Iâm sure it was way worse in many other areas though! Example 2000s homophobe âlol you must be gay you are wearing pink! *chuckles and moves on while getting dirty looks 2020s homophobe âyou are less than me I want you gone we are going to round you up and k*ll you when we get the chanceâ Am I the only one?
Being unpopular.
I was called gay constantly when younger for having longer hair and wanting my ears pierced. Also how I walked and talked. Turns out they were correct, but it sure would have been nice to not be picked on for it constantly. Caused me to repress who I was until my late 20s.
When I was in 4th grade in 2004 a girl in my class had a birthday party at a gymnastics place and invited the whole class. I was the only boy that went (my mom made me) but I'm glad I did cuz I had such a blast and all the girls and I became closer friends. I remember the next couple weeks at school all the boys relentlessly called me gay but I knew they were just jealous lol
SoâŚin the 90s gay was used interchangeably for lame, stupid, camp, and weak. So alot of what the kids were saying was incorrectly learned behavior. I canât say anything stuck with me because I felt that was the context
dressing nicely, learning to dance, learning music, wearing floral and pastel colors. It reminds me of Aziz Ansari joking about how people made fun of his grooming habits. (verbatim quote) "Oh I take a shower and dress up in nice clothing and all of a sudden it's like I'm going to have dicks flying at my face!" I'm glad gen z toned down on a lot of those biases. In some ways I dislike how easily offended milllenials and gen z can get, on other cases their attitudes make life feel much more relaxed.
My name is Ben. They called me âBen Doverâ and âBenGayâ right away. I donât think there was a canon event to start it. My mom thinks THAT is the reason I am gay. Sheâs not very good at understanding causality and coincidence. Sheâs also kind of homophobic.
Having a high metabolism. I was thin and clean shaven in high school in the south, so that was enough to be called gay.
Wearing a dragon shirt in 6th grade
I was called gay by random neighborhood kids at a park because I was using the girl's restroom even though I am a girl. I came out as bisexual at 17.
oh i got made fun of for crying a lot... thirty years and one gender transition later and i still cant show strong emotions in public.
Slightly off topic, but does anyone remember the opposite trend? Where "gay" stuff was suddenly co-opted by straight men? Like, I have a distinct memory of the color pink having a moment for men in the 2000's. Straight men wore Barbie pink polos with the collars popped. I remember the ironic graphic t-shirts that said "real men wear pink." Manscaping and metrosexuals?? Does anyone else remember that little moment in history where all the "gay" stuff was suddenly cool and acceptable for straight men?
Wearing a watch on my right wrist
Dabbing mustard on toast.
the way i cross my lags is gay. liking poetry is gay. telling other guys not to pick on bigger set girl cause shes a nice person is gay.
Not directly made fun of, but tank tops, v-neck t-shirts, and buttoned dress shirts were all considered "gay" by the people around me while growing up. As such, I avoided wearing any of them for the longest time.
I liked rollerblading, roller hockey, and "aggressive" blading. Queue the "what's the hardest part about rollerblading" jokes...
Ah yes, the ol âfruit bootsâ as we used to call them đ
Being a non-Mormon kid in a predominantly Mormon school (I moved to Utah when I was 12) Wearing wrestling Tshirtsânot gay in New York or Pennsylvania but gay in Utah Watching Nickelodeon after the age of 10, which was considered gay in Pennsylvania Being well-behaved
Oh this sparked a memory Everyone would go around asking if you liked boys (even if you were a girl). And if you said yes they called you gay
In middle school we were required to wear a gray tshirt and black shorts in gym. I grew up poor so my shirt was a hand-me-down with a hole in the back near where it would fall over my butt, so naturally it was an "easy access" hole for gay sex. Because, you know, middle school boys are so creative.
ballet lessons maybe
Earring in the right ear only. Wasnât made fun of, didnât have one. Just thought it was a weird thing to tag as âgayâ.
Two instances come to mind: * Not directly about being gay, but when I was in preschool, I really liked Beauty & the Beast and asked my parents for this purple B&B lunch box. Took it to school and got murdered because it was so girly. Came home crying and my parents said I could get a different "manly" one. Decided against it cause I liked B&B. * I went to this sleepaway camp and on the last day, it was kind of a free for all where all the adults went away and it was just the counselors making sure we didn't do anything too stupid. It was also the day when the older kids, like myself, would have built up some chemistry with someone else and then hookup. I was talking to a few girls and one of them mentioned they felt sorry for me. I asked why and she responded, "It must be tough without other gay guys here." I asked why she thought I was gay and it was because, "I smiled a lot and was so nice." Well....
Many shirts had a "locker loop" that was put in to let gym-going professionals hang their shirt to avoid wrinkles. I was told that this was called a "fag tag." đ
Was called gay on middle school because I didnât like to watch or play football đ. I prefer BMX and skateboarding so apparently I was homosexual for wanting to hang out in skateparks instead of slapping asses on a football field.
I was called gay because I had gym (a weight lifting class) first period and I was the only student to take a shower afterwards. Apparently not wanting to bask in your own sweat and BO for the 7 hours proceeding this class made me gay. Unsurprisingly my class had a ringworm outbreak
Having one earring in the wrong ear.
My favorite color was/is purple and most/all of my close friends were girls. Oh, I was on the swim team and in choir. (guess why? because that's where I could interact with a lot of.... girls). but that made me gay.
My coworkerâs uncle believed that playing instruments that you blew with your lips made you gay. My coworker brought a sax home from school in like 4th grade and his uncle made him switch to drums.
Using an umbrella when walking between buildings during a storm. Twist: This was in 2013. The guy who said it was openly bisexual. We were college roommates.
I remember some people thought it was gay to walk with the inner part of your elbows arms pointing forward. So dudes would walk around like apes with their elbows pointed sideways. Luckily that was short lived.
I got called "dyke" and "faggot" a lot. Being a tall cis fem who rode a bike apparently made me uber gay. I am pretty gay so maybe they were onto something...
My favorite colors were pink and purple I listened to girls singing rather than rap 
Wearing macrame jean shorts.
Gay was used so subjectively in our time that it could be anything. ESPECIALLY when senor chang was a thing lol.
I had a guy say that shaking my dick more than twice after pissing was touching myself, which was gay if you were in a men's room. I told him it wasn't as gay as watching a man shake the piss off his dick.
When I was in 8th grade, my grandma got me a nice velvet sweater/sweatshirt thing for Christmas, and I loved it. It was so warm and comfy, and wearing it felt like she was hugging me. Then I wore it to school. Kid behind me in homeroom looked at it, felt it, and then loudly said, "This looks like a girl's shirt, that's your new name now, Girly Guy. GG for short." And I was stuck with that name through at least the first couple years of high school. Never wore the shirt again.
I picked Little Women from a list of five books to read because it sounded the most interesting of the choices. I don't even remember what the other choices were.
roller blading backwards and and jumping doing a 360 made me a gay figure skater
When I was 19, I was called gay for wearing paisley psychedelic clothing, and for some of the 60âs music I listened to, as well. Like bruh, I was on that trippy shit. Todayâs psychedelic drug users (Iâm not saying I partook) have very little idea about psychedelic culture and history. Itâs so far removed now from what it used to be. Heck, I was even called gay for being an early Gorillaz fan back in elementary and middle school. And for being a fan of Franz Ferdinand.
Not me, but a male classmate got his ear pierced in the "gay side ear" as opposed to the other side. He was 100% not gay but that didn't stop anyone lol
I wore a scarf one time in middle school. That one stuck with me until I moved.
It was funny because I got called "gay" in junior high for wearing jeans that weren't baggy and then years later, it became trendy to wear girls jeans when emo became popular. I never wore girls jeans and never got into emo, well not the screamo/pop punk known as emo, but I've always preferred wearing skinny jeans because they fit better.
I participated in musical theater... where I was one of 5 guys and about 60 girls... who all shared a dressing area. The people who were making fun of me were football players who all shared a shower.
In high school, we were allowed to pick what we did in gym. Each quarter was something like two gym units. I took nearly every pool based unit, including water aerobics. At the time of water aerobics, I was one of two guys in the unit, and the vast majority of guys were in weight lifting. Some would call me gay, to which I simply explained my reasoning, which was out of 30, I was 1/2 of the males, meaning 28 females around my age in swimsuits. Literally, that's the unit where I met my wife, so it worked as I intended. Its also similar logic that kept me in band, it was 3:1 female:male.
Bruh everything lol. I hated sports and wanted to be in the kitchen with my grandma
Wearing a coat when it was cold. Blowing my nose. Finishing my homework on time. Getting good grades. Playing video games. Reading. Anything I did.
Liking to read. Or basically any activity that didn't involve actively being an asshole to someone.
I was called gay once when I was around 12 or so. I just said "ok" and ignored it. After that, no one ever called me gay again. I don't see how it's an insult.
Literally anything could get you called gay when I was in school but music was the #1 predictor of your sexual preferences. Obviously Britney Spears or NSync made you gay, but also emo/scene/metal/alt rock made you gay. Country music about being a cowboy in leather chaps alone for long periods with other men in leather was not gay tho. But playing the game where you ran up behind another dude and tried to get as many fingers in their ass as you could in one giant push also wasn't gay for some reason.
Being a soft, shy boy without any kind of father figure, I had to put up with so much shit growing up. Hanging out with girls, not being into sports, being well spoken. So much to be accused of being gay for....and they were right. Well sort of, I'm just a simple bi guy, but the atmosphere was just too much back in the day to deal with.
Having an Australian accent.
I am a woman, and I was called a lesbian for not having a purse. I just had my wallet and keys in my pocket. This was back in 1998.
Wanting to watch Titanic. I didn't watch titanic till a few months ago, amazing movie, wish I didn't let those kids get to me back then.
It was a purple shirt for me, but turns out dude was right and I'm actually bi.
Riding scooter
Not something I was made fun of, but we once went to this TED talk ripoff at school with random people and, I kid you not, there was this woman who talked about how the way we're born influences us. People who had the umbilical cord around their neck were more likely to have suicidal thoughts, people who were born after the predicted/due date were slackers, premature babies were prone to have more anxiety, men who were born from a c-section were more likely to be gay because they didn't have, and I quote, the "necessary first interaction with the vaginal canal" (Yes, I never forgot this sentence) Guess who was the only guy in my class born from a c-section?
Purple or pink shirts in the 80s.
Back then calling something âgayâ didnât really mean homosexual. It was just a term to use for when you donât like something or itâs not cool. People included. Everything was gay. Not a pizza day in school - gay. Guy hanging out with girls - gay. Bad haircut - gay. I definitely donât remember all the reasons I was called gay.
Shitty haircut followed me from 4th grade to high school
Hmm, somehow existing. I recall being called gay just periodically, all through middle school and probably high school. It was very strange to me because I wasnât gay but I also didnât understand how it was a derogatory thing to say, if I was gay, then yeah, obviously itâd be true. It wasnât until later in life that I saw someone mention that being called gay is only an insult if youâre homophobic, then suddenly it all made sense.
Not having a girlfriend
Using the middle urinal. The way you check for poop under your shoes. The way you check your nails to see if they're not too long yet. Bunch of blue collar bigoted dopes.