Is it normal for someone to make homophobic comments all the time?

I have this one guy I've been friends with for a long time. He's always been homophobic, but it seeems like it's gotten worse lately. Sometimes I'm so confused honestly. He'll make a gay joke, then be like extremely disturbed by it whereas most people I know would just laugh. If you try to joke with him he gets freaked out. He also says "no homo" A LOT, more than any other straight guy I know.

He was raised to believe anything that isn't straight is wrong. I was raised to believe the same, but homosexuality really doesn't bother me (there's more to people than what turns them on in my opinion). That's not to say I've never made a homophobic comment before, but I rarely do.

I get the feeling he might be trying to hide something, but if you ever mention anything about gay people all you'll get from him are homophobic comments. He mostly just echoes the negative stereotypes on gay people, though he doesn't realize it. He's slept around with women before too, but he's never been in a relationship. From the comments he makes about women it sounds like he's kind of afraid of relationships.

I noticed it before, but it's kind of started to bother me. It seems like there's a reason for him acting this way, and I don't mean upbringing either. Whether he's gay or straight he's still the same friend to me, that's not an issue. It just seems really unhealthy for him, and I'd rather him be honest with himself at least, even if he can't be honest with me. Unfortunately, I can't just ask him or I'll get "I don't want to talk about it" or "it's weird because it just is". I kind of hinted at it once and the response I got was "mhm" followed by an extremely awkard silence and him trying to stare a hole through the TV.

He was over the other day, and I told him he was more like a brother to me than a friend. I probably shouldn't of said that, but I didn't feel gay about doing it and it had been on my mind for weeks. He said he was fine with it, but he's been acting kind of awkard ever since. I think he may have thought I was trying to come out to him but I'm not really sure. Or he realized his other friends just aren't that comfortable around him. He hasn't made a gay joke towards me for a week, which is really unusual since he used to make one almost every day. I feel like what I said has caused a rift in our friendship, but I'm not really sure what to do about it.

Do alot of guys act this homophobic all the time, or am I right in thinking he's hiding something? And if I am right, what can I do to help him?