Was Lister really homophobic?

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

For some reason I was thinking today of Series 7, for no particular reason, and alighted on Lister's bad reaction in "Duct Soup" to Kochanski talking about her dimension's Dave being gay. I've seen this brought up in discussions elsewhere, basically taking Lister (and Doug of course) to task for turning an otherwise tolerant and accepting character into a -phobe of some sort.

I feel like there's a far simpler explanation for why Lister reacted this way, that doesn't make him look like a bad person as some have indicated, who've said their opinion of him was lowered as a result of this episode. Perhaps the one most fanboys and others might accept is that he's afraid Kochanski will get the idea he's NOT interested in her, and never respond to his advances or take them seriously - so instead of just saying he's not and leaving it at that, he, like so many men before and since, overreacts, thinking this answers the question without any Unfortunate Implications to Their Character.

HOWEVER ... I think for our purposes and even within canon, there's a better explanation (I just kind of wish we didn't have to wait another episode to get to it, because as a standalone episode, it kind of makes him look bad). "Blue" immediately follows this episode; Lister spends the whole time moping over Rimmer. And as we know, it isn't the moping of missing a best friend - it's deliberately played as being a possibility of more than simply "missing a buddy." Lister is seemingly bothered by the implication he could find Rimmer attractive; my guess is this and "Duct Soup" are meant to be linked by the common thread of Lister worrying over this one thing, and not necessarily meant to show he's a homophobic man. Am I just stating the obvious, or has anyone else not considered this about "Duct Soup" before now, either?