It's not about education; it's about risk and the willingness to face it. By responding to, "How's your wife?" with "My husband's fine," he's admitting homosex

It's not about education; it's about risk and the willingness to face it. By responding to, "How's your wife?" with "My husband's fine," he's admitting homosexuality to a potential homophobe. You could lie and say, "She's fine," and that'd be that. You could be neutral and say, "Fine," but that just postpones it. And for some people, they're aware that's a deliberate skirting of the issue and is basically a lie by omission. That atrophies the very muscle the author wanted to discuss. You might find it acceptable, but it's clear that the author does not.