Curiosity killed the Cat.

Our BB joined up with another company for a summer camp of fun and frivolity.  All in all about 14 lads between 11-18 years of age and 7 officers.  Which was a massive difference to the BB camps back home where 3 churches youth groups of BB and the Girls Brigades unite to make an 80+ strong camp.   But it was still great fun although there were some who had problems.
There was one Kid who was quite young and got it in the neck a lot.  He wanted loads of answers and would constantly ask questions.  This annoyed the man in charge who would shout for him to put his hand down and consistently criticised the boy.  Then one of our boys decided to criticise him as well, one of those people that gather a following and soon everyone was joining in.  There was no real malice in it but it soon got to this boy.
He had a camp way about him and gay jokes became non-stop by half way through the week.  It ended in tears.
The lad who'd started it came over to everyone one lunch and made a gay joke too far, nobody laughed.  I saw the boy behind a bush crying, i don't think anyone else noticed.  I'd gotten to know him a bit by then and found myself sitting next to him, a situation which i'm getting far too frequently these days.  I'm not fond of speeking to anyone in that state, but he needed someone to give him a leg up.
He told me what had happened.  This innocent kid had let slip that at points his eyes often wandered whilst in the toilets.  Now puberty is a difficult stage for most people, especially if you're as curious as this one is.  But telling people something like that is just foolish especially on the current popularity of gay jokes.  He spoke without thinking.

I told him that not one person had laughed, they'd also seen me with him and i could see the guilt when they saw him crying.  We talked about it and i joked about it with him before he wiped his eyes and we headed over to the others who guiltily tried to cheer him up.
But the jokes continued soon after.
I spoke to them all that night about my experiences with bullies as a kid, when i was once a small lad who got picked on.  It was more about dealing with bullies then anything but also how people can change.  They understood it at least.  But more then that, i gained respect for it, which they'd also gotten from seeing me helping out the crying boy.  A different type of respect to the main officer, not through fear.
I caught up with the ringleader before bed and we had a chat.  Several of the others joined in and i discussed how they'd feel on the other side of the bullying, or what if one of their friends was gay and saw them making jokes.  Rationalising a situation is often better then disciplining.
For the rest of the week the boy received no bullying from the boys.  The camp got along perfectly.  When someone said a gay joke they were told off, not by me though, but by the ringleader.  A u-turn.
People can change!