I'm pretty certain that many people, especially male, have a bisexual side of some sort, that they block out because they are afraid. I'm not saying that every person is bisexual like some people do, but I think there's no straight line between sexualities, but a lot of grey in between. So I think many people feel ashamed when they felt an attraction to someone of the same sex, or to discover they were attracted to an androgynous person who turned out to be the same sex... And I don't think I'm any better than that. Actually, some of my friends discovered some homosexual desires in their twenties, after all the gay-bashing is through. I think you should teach a kid what "gay" means (other than happy) before it encounters "gay" as a swearword. when I was in elementary school, all the boys in my class used "to f_ck" and "to jerk off" (German: "ficken" and "wichsen") synonymously, since they didn't know the difference, and hardly grasped what either of it meant (I don't remember why I knew the difference, honestly, but the F-word was explained to me on the playground by some teenage misfit when I was 6. No he didn't touch me). Children are like that, and I wouldn't want my child to be called gay without even knowing what it means. Tell them what homo-, bi- and heterosexuality are, maybe transgender though that really complicates issues (on the other hand, people who are not comfortable with the sex they are born with, enough said), tell them it's all fine, and tell them that ignorant people think it isn't, that to not think it is fine is a clear sign of stupidity or ignorance, and tell them to call everyone who calls you gay a gay-bashing homophobe. that should puzzle the little bully brat.