I didn't say that I found it to be hate speech, only that it could be interpreted as such.

What is it then?

I see it more often being used in place of dumb/wild. I think it's pretty rare that people use it to refer to someone as a homosexual.

I don't know what better term to use for people using the term associated with a sexual minority as a term with a negative connotation on people not affiliated with said minority. And "dumb/wild" is just one tame usage, sometimes "gay" is used as an even more generic "this person/thing/action is bad"-word.

The point is that it has nothing to do with homosexuals.

Dumb and wild are also slurs, it's not possible to call someone "weird" without using a slur, because all words like "weird" were originally slurs, they have just undergone reputation recycling over the years that we forgot about it.