I never thought much about gay or straight people growing up. Back in the 50’s and 60’s you just didn’t hear much about it. Maybe everyone was in the closet back then like a lot of us here are about some secret (enemas in my case) that isn’t openly discussed.
My first real experience with gay/lesbian people happened when I worked for a large insurance company in Los Angeles. The underwriting staff had a large number of gays and lesbians working there. Some were very open about it and it ranged from couldn’t tell to very obvious. Some guys were the rugged, good looking, very masculine type to very feminized, make up wearing, almost stereotyped gay guy. The women also ran the gamut from having crew cut hair and men’s clothing to very attractive, feminine, I would have loved to date. It really never bothered me and I became lifelong friends with a number of them. Maybe it was growing up in California where things are a bit more open and acceptable.
There was a movie with Cuba Gooding Jr. about a gay cruise called Boat Trip. The movie wasn’t very good except for two scenes for me. One was Cuba Gooding Jr. doing a stage show with ‘I’m coming out’ as the theme song. The other more memorable scene for me was a talk Rick (Horatio Sanz, playing a straight guy) had with Hector (Maurice Godin, playing a gay male). You can see it on YT ‘Boat Trip – Social View of Homosexuality’. It was one of the most simple, moving and straight forward talks about gay people I have ever seen and was very memorable.
To me being straight or gay is an individual choice and I don’t have a problem with that. If a guy was to hit on me, I would just politely say 'no thanks' and treat it as I would if a woman were to do the same. I don’t believe people are born gay, it’s a choice they make and that is their choice. No different than mixed marriages or blondes versus brunettes. I only know people as friends, lovers, strangers, co-workers, associates or whatever they are in my life. I judge people by their actions and couldn’t care less about their sexual preferences. It’s just one part of their life. I use other, more important things to determine what kind of person they are and how close I want to be to them.