True, I'm seeing him simply as a mis-guided youth. While he uses the 'f' term, he's not truly homophobic. He has local friends, even though he has been home schooled. His brother is gay, perhaps not openly, but to avoid the peer pressure, and the 'your brother is gay, you must be too' comments, he has to put on a facade.
Another 'f' word, fear. Perhaps he threatened her. Maybe she's smaller than he is. Definitely more Jeff is coming.
Put all 1072 author's names on a blackboard and toss a dart? There may actually be somewhat fewer than that, I'm only sure of three that are no longer in the same plane of existence as the rest of us are.
Sometimes if it looks like a duck, it's really a kitty. But in Jeff's case, he's resigned himself to being the duck he obviously knows he is.
One needs to replace a certain letter that comes between t and v with an 'i' and use a different word for kitty in the above sentences to feel the full brunt of it.
I think the key thing to remember here is Michael's comment:
Other things have been tried in the past. His father simply reached the end of his rope where nothing else seemed to have made a difference.
And, no, he may be that stupid, but he's not exactly mean.