Did you mean to suggest that the definition of a homophobe is someone who offends gay people? Seems to me homophobia has to do with that person's own feelings towards gay people, more than with gay people's feelings about that person. Plenty of homophobes out there who don't make that known in public for fear of a backlash, I'm sure, and on the other hand people who aren't homophobic but insult gay people because of group pressure or whatever.

Anyway, that's a bit nitpicking maybe, I agree with Celia that most likely Rice doesn't fall into either of those categories nor that of open homophobe. It's likely she doesn't have much in the way of gay friends or sensitivity for the issue, yes, or she would have chosen a better word, but that's a wholly different thing.

The most important lesson she should learn from this, if you ask me, is how very deceptive Twitter is. You type in a few words from the privacy of your home or cell phone, the sort of thing you might say out loud to your friends, and next thing you know the whole world can know about it.