How can I/we prevent homophobia?

I enjoy discussing with my students (15 y/o) about many things but mostly I enjoy (or feeling obliged) discussing homosexuality. I get scared when I hear these kids discussing homosexuality. First I thought it is a religion thing and many of my students are either Muslims, Catholics or Christians and depending how hardcore religious they are, the more homophobia they show. But it’s not like that at all. It’s probably more likely to be the age and how mature they are. As a 15 year old boy you are almost expected to “hate gays” and most of my boys use the word “hate” when talking about gays. And it makes me very sad.

I believe as a teacher I have a huge task here. Even if most of them will grow up and start seeing life differently in a couple of years I believe we have to do our best to stop it.

How can I continue my work to prevent homophobia? Any thoughts?