Seems unfair to the produce industry to pigeonhole them this way. 
In all seriousness, however, how long has this word been used to refer to homosexual folk? It’s not in wide usage these days, of course, but it still remains that if you refer to somebody as a fruit, then there leaves little doubt as to the implication you’re making.
So does anyone have an idea?
Carmen Miranda’s hat?
Wild guess – it’s from the phrase “forbidden fruit” (as in Eve’s apple from the Bible story).
Oh. I thought it meant “out there,” “far out,” “soft-minded.” Short for “fruitcake,” as in “Shirley Maclaine is a real fruitcake.” Adjective, “fruity.”
The OED gives first cite as as “homosexual” in 1935 and indicates it’s derived from “fruit” meaning “easy mark” and later “easy woman”:
I’ve heard it suggested that it’s evolved from the British slang usage of “fruit” for “university alumni,” and is rooted in anti-intellectualism. I don’t buy it, though, since the “fruit” = “gay” thing seems to have developed independently in America.
I think it’s just supposed to imply delicacy or weakness by contrast with “manly” meat-and-potatoes, beefy metaphors. Or even, diet aside, the relative physical delicacy of fruit. Compare “pansy.”
The Historical Dictionary of American Slang by J. E. Lighter cites it first from about 1900. The derivation is exactly that as offered by RealityChuck .
Cool. It’s puzzling how an origin that implies desire or attraction came to be used so derisively by machos, though.
Most slang words for male homosexuals probably came from terms meaning “weak,” “easy to victimize,” “feminine in appearance,” etc. The idea was that a homosexual was the inferior one in the sex act. In other words, if I rape you, that makes you homosexual, but not me.
Man, I think I read that somewhere How did “faggot” get to mean “male homosexual”? 