I mean yeah. To start with, casual homophobic phrase: “{blank} is gay” is a very common, very quick social check on behavior; it’s saying to be careful of being too effeminate, or too lame, uncool.

I think for children, they first use the phrase more to mean “lame”, it’s edgy for them and therefore interesting because it’s as close to cursing as they can get without cursing. I think that by the time they grow old enough to understand that the phrase can be homophobic, it’s likely that the phrase “don’t be gay” has already been repeated enough that it creates an unconscious tension to still try to “not be gay”, even if the phrase isn’t used anymore because “that would be gay.”

I think confronting children’s fear of appearing “lame” would go a long way in promoting men’s willingness to discover how to have deeper bonds with each other, even if it could be awkward at first.

edit: wording