Reaction To Hate Speech

Today I was reading a story online about a group of gay teens who were verbally harassed.  This not only saddened me but also made me wonder, what is the best way to handle the abuse you can get for being gay?  In my opinion the best way to handle these situations is to either ignore them or to use words to get your emotions across.  The worst possible way to handle these situations is through a physical response which although is the worst possible way to handle it, when people are verbally abusing you it is an understandable response.  Now I'm not saying a physical response is helpful but I can occasionally understand why some people have that reaction. If you are in a situation where you are being verbally abused the best response would be to just ignore it because all the abuser wants is a reaction. If you don't give them what they want hopefully they will stop. What do you think is the best type of response? Have you ever been in a similar situation?