I was widely considered to be gay in high school. Not that I was at all, I just did not share any interest in “normal” guy things like organized sports or muscle cars.

I was into art, music and literature, and tended to hang out with other simlarly idiosyncratic social outcasts (several of whom later came out as gay).

And although I was interested in women at least theoretically, I was too socially inept to actually have a real girlfriend, and when I did finally sort of find one, she went to a different school.

I do feel a great deal of sympathy for anyone who was picked on for not living up to mediocre, malicious people’s standards of appearance and behavior.