I feel like women are a lot more accepting of homosexuality than men. When I was in high school in my marriage&family class, the subject of gay marriage came up and more girls than boys accepted it. Even talking to my Mormon friends, the girls accepted it more. Why so? Cause girls run the world?
It's the way men are raised and social structure. However that's not to say that it isn't changing because it is. Also some women are still pretty homophobic. Infact some of the most vocal political homophobes have been women.
Gay men aren't threatening to women and in pop culture, they're taught to value the qualities of a gay man - even if it reduces us to accessories.
They can be uncomfortable about lesbianism though.
Straight guys are often threatened by gay men. Probably because they generally prefer traditional gender roles - because they come out on top - and gay men throw a spanner in the works there because stereotypically they bridge between gender roles and defy the norm. Also, many see gay men as predatory rivals who are physically on par with - if not above - them. In the same way some women feel uncomfortable being around straight men because she assumes they'd rape her given the chance, straight men fear being emasculated by being raped. Irrational, but hey.
Obviously, straight guys and lesbianism is a different story.
Cause if you are a woman and you don't have gay best friend, you know you have failed in life.
As someone above said, it's the masculinity/femininity thing. And also the fact that some guys think that because you are gay you have to fall in love with him.
Society will still oftentimes label straight guys who are not homophobic as gay. A lot of guys just aren't okay with being thought of as such, so they act all pseudo-macho and denounce homosexuality in desperate attempts to prove their straightness. What they don't seem to realize is that being macho means being comfortable enough in your own masculinity to not feel threatened when others question it.
I don't think it's so much that women are more accepting, it's just that men are less.
The idea of male homosexuality is a threat to the rigid and restrictive doctrine of "masculinity" that most men are raised to accept. And not even just the stereotypes of effeminate homosexuality, but the very idea of males being attracted to another males is just so outside their worldview that they must either confront it or reject it. Women on the other hand, generally aren't raised on the same mind-set and are probably more willing to approach homosexuals as actual human beings rather than "failed men."
I think Erykah Badu said it best when she said that: "People are uncomfortable with sexuality that's not for male consumption."
When femininity, defined as anything outside the realms of masculinity, is performed beyond the entertainment purposes of straight men, they see it as an affront to their very limited and draconian ideas of gender and expression. Ideals that they've propped up to sustain their misogynistic society where a woman's only power is what men allow her to wield - her sexuality, and for a man to enact what is considered feminine is repulsive and worthy of disgust and even violence.
Obviously religion and the way you're raised are factors. But at the root of it all I think most straight men are just scared a gay will try to make a move on them That and they may be judged by their male peers for befriending one.
Because guys don't want other guys hitting on them so they don't like the gays. Duh. Therefore woman have a natural connection to gay men then heterosexual men. Girls know gays won't do damage to them.
That and they may be judged by their male peers for befriending one.