Having grown up as a minority in a pretty repressive environment in the deep South, aggressive taunts from heterosexuals in my community - my family, even - were a mainstay. You get used to it pretty early on in life because there's not much of a choice there; being out is life-threatening in that world and sometimes just supporting others who are like us can put those who are hidden at risk. And in this place, in too many places, heterosexuality is beaten into people's heads, literally and figuratively. It's in our churches. In our schools. For so long it was embedded in the framework of our military - as if bravery, if honor were heterosexual qualities. As if god-fearing religious people can only be straight.
This code was enforced with beatings, with outings, with shunning. It was enforced through the repression of the closet - as cold and evil a place as you'll find. We just instinctively knew that we were supposed to be heterosexual, that it was the right thing, and anything else would be tortured out of us, til we repented and agreed with this conservative life we were coerced and threatened into. The closet was far from a respite, it was never a secret, warm place where anyone could feel safe or secure. The closet was a forced 'institution', an expectation imposed by forces before we were ever born into existence.