Think I've said this elsewhere, but I always just read the slurs as kids being kids. You know, dialogue written in character? If this story was set during my teenage years, the dialogue would have been wall-to-wall homophobic insults from kids who weren't too clear on what being gay actually is.

(One of my favourite SF writers once pointed out that he has straight up dropped an N-bomb in a novel before now and nobody batted an eye. "Hint: there is a thing we writers like to call 'dialogue'.")