About 10 years ago I sat in the cafeteria at South Huron District High School, unwittingly privy to a conversation between three other students who were sitting nearby.

One of the three was headed to college the ensuing fall, and one of her friends expressed concern about the company she would keep there.

"Make sure you don't hang out with (black people)," he said, as if doing so was somehow immoral.

The college-bound student was offended not by her friend's racism but by the notion he thought she would do such a thing.

"Do you know who you're talking to?" she asked.

This type of exchange was by no means the norm when I attended South Huron, but it wasn't the only case of racism I witnessed.

When it happened I began wondering if social progress was a real thing, and if it had taken hold in rural southern Ontario after all.

As you know if you attended South Huron at the time, the school's racism was far less pronounced than its homophobia.

When I attended, there was almost nothing worse than being gay. Most who were accused of being gay denied it vehemently, or admitted it ironically.

Homophobic slurs were common pejoratives, and the phrase "that's so gay," in reference to something perceived lame or effeminate, was uttered frequently by almost everyone – myself included.

When I learned last year that there was a group called the Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) at South Huron, it took me aback. I graduated in 2002, and it didn't seem possible then that such a group could exist.

It encouraged me that such a group had cropped up, and I was encouraged more a few weeks ago when I witnessed the school's first GSA-themed assembly.

I spoke to the leader of the GSA shortly after the assembly and he spoke glowingly about the community, despite the fact he'd been bullied due to his sexuality.

He said tolerance in the school had improved a thousandfold in the last few years alone, and I began to think that maybe things had changed drastically in a very short amount of time.

I began thinking otherwise recently, when I learned the GSA leader's home was spray-painted with many of the same homophobic pejoratives we used when I was in school.

Like that student, I don't believe the types of people who scrawl things on houses with paint cans indicate the pulse of a community.

But there is no denying that homophobia still exists here, just as racism did when I was in school, in the face of decades of social progress.

I understand that some people object to a homosexual lifestyle on religious grounds, and I understand that there are plenty more who grew up in a homophobic environment, ingrained with an ideology of intolerance.

Many others simply don't know how to deal with the concept of same-sex relationships, and their ambivalence manifests itself in actions like this.

My hope is that sexuality will soon become a non-issue in Huron County, as it was at the university I attended after graduation.

During high school I spent plenty of time trying to make clear that I was not gay – mainly because I wasn't (for the record, I still am not) but also because to be perceived as gay was to be socially maligned.

When I got to university, it quickly became apparent that nobody cared about anyone's sexual persuasion. We were judged on our character, our intelligence and the way we treated one another.

Sexuality was the least of our concerns; it was about as relevant as our taste in music.

My dream is that Huron County becomes a place like that, and I think it can happen in my lifetime.

No one need abandon their religion or set of values, as long as those values are not immersed in hate.

But we ought to accept people as they are, and  learn there are a million more important things to get worked up about.