You know...maybe this is a topic for P/R, but I just have to say that when I worked in a night club years ago, I had *A LOT* of gay friends. Wanna know why I loved them so much? They had great senses of humor. And the ones that *I* personally knew would have been the first ones to laugh their asses off at that GIF. I remember even back then that they were all very frustrated at a vocal minority of the gay community who were (their words) "getting their panties in a twist" any time anyone used a joke with a derogatory term. I think a lot of things are just all about context.
But OTOH, I get that we have a rule in place that is very black and white, and we can't just suddenly start drawing arbitrary lines in the sand that can become very blurry very quickly... so while I bristle a bit, I think the correct call was made in removing it.