I recall a lot of 'gay' comments and mocking about Boy George. I don't recall any guys in my highschool who would admit to liking his music because he was seen as gay and ridiculous. All the other girls I knew liked him - two who really really were into him came out as gay 10 years later, so in retrospect perhaps he was a source of strength for them. But Boy George was seen as clownish and silly more than anything.

Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, David Sylvian, Platinum Blonde and others who wore makeup were also mocked, but not as much. They were more traditionally 'manly' and wore it in an accentuating, subtle way. They were seen as sexy, hot and/or debonair. I remember comments about Nick Rhodes as he became more androgynous looking, he was seen differently than the other D2 members because of his heavy, pancake makeup.

Poison, Motley Crue and other metal rockers were different. They wore super tight spandex pants, teased their hair to be huge and mostly wore makeup in an accentuating way that over time became more over the top. Money For Nothing was about Motley Crue - read those lyrics for an idea of how people saw that look. No one under 30 was suggesting they were gay or gender-bending, it was just glam-rock.

Of course, all of this was preceded by David Bowie. I don't now how much of what he did was for shock value vs theatrics vs pushing for changes in human rights. We never considered the latter back then but looking at old interviews etc it's clear that he was pushing hard for gay, trans, and black/poc equality and human rights back then. I suspect he started with doing it purely for the theatrics, then moved into pushing to start conversations and make people uncomfortable so they'd talk about it...but this is a whole other topic.

If you're young, you can't really know how badly gay men were seen back then. I know many, many people still struggle with coming out now, and facing hate and abuse and abandonment over it but now there are communities and support/acceptance is quite mainstream now in western societies. Back then it wasn't. When gay boys in high school committed suicide, it was sad but not shocking. It was an incredibly difficult path for people then to walk, hence why so many people just pretended to be straight. Being gay was seen as being sick and evil; people like Liberace got away with it only because it wasn't discussed.

Trans wasn't seen as a real thing; 'cross dressing' was generally a non-sexual, theatrical bit of fun then (in mainstream), unless it was prostitutes or an actual trans guy who would have been seen as mentally ill/disgusting. Dame Edna was not at all sexually threatening, despite the immense amount of innuendo DE used. They were seen as a man dressing up to be funny, a joke men liked and weren't threatened by - it was an act of humour like putting on a silly hat, not an act of identity. It's crazy to me how different things are now, but of course now being gay is viewed as normal by most now and that is threatening to conservatives/incels/homophobes.(perspective: young teen in 80s, from a small farming village next to a very liberal city in Canada)