Straight white male here, genuine question…

I’m sitting in class right now, still fuming, so I need to get this out before I explode. I thought this kind of thing only happened in movies. You know, the stereotypical “small-town bullies harassing the gay kid” trope? I thought that was just Hollywood exaggerating. But nope, it’s real. And I just saw it happen with my own eyes. For context I live in a small town in Alabama. It’s the kind of place where people still whisper about things they don’t understand, where “different” isn’t always welcome. But I guess I still had this naive idea that people my age were better than that. That we had moved past the whole “bully the gay kid” thing. Apparently not. There’s this kid in my school—let’s call him Jake. He’s gay. Everyone knows he’s gay. And today, a group of guys decided that was reason enough to corner him in the hallway and start messing with him. Shoving him, calling him slurs, laughing like they were the kings of the damn school. I just stood there for a second, completely in shock. Like… this is real? This is actually happening? What the hell is wrong with people? Then I snapped out of it and stepped in. Told them to back the hell off. I don’t even remember exactly what I said, but I was pissed. One of them tried to brush it off—“it’s just a joke, bro.” Yeah, real funny. Let’s see how funny it is when someone treats you like dirt for something you can’t change.