Re: The New OOC
It's a nineties or earlier thing. We had stereotypes about what homosexuals looked or acted like, because if we didn't our hyper-religious culture would have probably seen them as Communists 2.0 - "They could be anyone, and they are here to corrupt our youth and drain our manhoods away!" (See Dr. Strangelove for that last insight.) Hell, at a few points, that is exactly what happened. Acceptance of homosexuals is very, very new - even in my childhood, I distinctly recall it NOT being acceptable to reveal you were gay, as the social punishment was very disproportionate.
I wouldn't even bat an eye of Edward Norton was aiming for exactly that, though. '90's audiences were often just older '80's audiences. They'd have been rather accepting of the "evil gay" archetype. (See TvTropes for this...or don't, as the site has negative effects on people's thinking, such as convincing them they are smart because they understand metamedia now, which then inspires them to crawl up their own asses.)
Homosexuals, for their part, tended to hate people who looked and acted in the stereotypical manner, because of how it made them look.