I was about...erh, 6 years old when I first learned about homosexuality. My mother was watching Food Network and one of the contestants(who was a female) had a wife. I asked myself, "why does she have a wife? I thought women are supposed to marry men".

Then when I saw the woman kiss her wife, I just kept thinking- it felt weird, as it was the first time ever I saw a same-sex couple be together.

Well this is probably a poor example as he's never publicly stated that he's gay and does not at all represent how your average gay man behaves, but I recall asking my mother about Richard Simmons when I was no more than 3. She seemed to believe he was gay, though she did not explain precisely what that was.

Otherwise, it was actually the film Blazing Saddles maybe just two years later (my mother was not pleased with my dad for letting me watch it) with the scene of the male dancers who were rather clearly supposed to be gay. I thought they reminded me of the aforementioned Richard Simmons, asked my dad, and from what I recall he just said they're gay with some basic description akin to "instead of liking women they like men".

Obviously both examples were crazy flamboyant, but I think I'm a tad too old to have had a more conventional gay person be my first encounter... back then (and by that I mean only 25 years ago heh) it was generally either a source of comedy or just not spoken of or shown at all.

Uh, through pornography I guess?

Richard Simmons probably

Lol

I think in school when I was young.  Now I see them everywhere.  Its normal now.

Are gay people a sideshow attraction or something? What is the significance of having a first interaction with a gay person against having one with a heterosexual person?

i forgot how old i was when i first met her but one of my mom's friends who she knew since college is a lesbian.

Fair question.

Not sure if I'm the only one, but I grew up with homosexuality being close to nonexistent. not only that, but my parents kind of hid me away from it. Probably so I won't ask a million questions, but nonetheless it was actually a pretty important event of my life.

Skype chat.

I don't know because not everyone wears their sexuality on their sleeve. So it's very likely I was a baby when I first encountered a lesbian or gay guy. First time, I met some that I aware of was in high school. Dated a few bi-sexual women and they hung out with that crowd. Oddly enough, I got along with the lesbians really well. Common interests I guess.