I recall homosexual being said in the same way Les Dawson would say 'knickers' in that 'mouth the word out but half whisper it' way, because it was embarrassing. It was a word that induced shame because that was how society viewed what it was describing.
Using it with pride now is actually the reclaiming that these horrible people say they are promoting with their use of Queer.
But here's the thing - I had some people say, surprised, "You're homosexual?" and the words stung because they were true. That's shame for you. I had people call me queer while punching me, and that was pure hate. I was never queer. I wasn't a deviant. But I was always homosexual, I just needed to know that was ok. I actually thought we might gave got there as a society. Clearly we haven't.