Jake,
A couple things: There are a lot of men in nursing now. I've worked with many of them over the years and most are definitely NOT gay. Not that it matters anyway. If you become a nurse you will find that people will care far more about your critical thinking abilities and technical skills than about what you do in your private life. On the other hand, most of the male nurses I know are married to female nurses who they met on the job somewhere. So, its actually a good career to go into if you are a straight dude who wants to meet women. The down side to it though is that you will be working in female-dominated environment, and along with that comes some of the behavior that most men generally avoid---gossiping, etc. If you decide to become a nurse, concentrate on critical care and go straight to the ICU or ER once you finish with school. From there you can continue on in school and go on to becoming a Nurse Anesthetist or a Nurse Practitioner.
I encourage you to think carefully about what you really want to do while you are still young BEFORE you go into it. Nursing and Medicine are two very different things. If you want to be a doctor don't waste time and money becoming a nurse first. The prerequisite courses are different, and you will find yourself starting over from scratch for medical school because they will not accept your nursing coursework as fulfillment of their requirements.
You should also be aware that when the colleges tell you that it takes 2 years to complete an Associates degree in nursing they are referring to the length of time it generally takes to complete the nursing courses. Before you can take those courses you have to take prerequisite classes in anatomy and physiology I and II, chemistry, microbiology, composition, math, etc. And you need to pass these classes with As and Bs because if your GPA falls below a certain level you will not get into the nursing program. Its going to take you at least a year to a year and a half to get those prerequisite classes done. So a 2 year nursing degree actually takes about three and a half years to complete (for most people). Some people take longer because they fail courses and have to repeat.
Medical school is a whole different beast. You need at least a bachelor's degree in biology, or biochemistry, or some combination of these. You need 2 levels of general chemistry with labs, 2 levels of general biology with labs, 2 levels of physics with labs, and at least 1 microbiology course and the lab before most medical schools will even consider you as an applicant. Some require more prerequisites such as calculus. You're going to need a hard science background to do well on the MCAT exam, and that is a major part of what determines whether you get into medical school or not. Medical school is far more intense and involves a much longer program of study than nursing. You're looking at about 10 years (4 years undergrad, 4 years grad school, and 2 years of residency). You will not be able to work as a nurse while you are studying to become a doctor. You will not have time. In fact, most medical schools will kick you out of their program if they find out that you are working because they know that it will impede your studies. You will will either have to get funds from your family (if they are wealthy) or take out student loans to pay for medical school. And at the end of your program you should expect to be at least $250,000 to $290,000 in student loan debt. Obviously, that is a boatload of cash!!!!
My suggestion is that you don't do medical school unless you REALLY have a passion to become a doctor. Health care financing is changing in this country, and you will find yourself paying back that student loan debt for maybe 25 or more years, and unless you become a physician in a highly specialized area you may very well find that you won't be making as much money as you thought you would. Think about whether its worth it for you. I recommend that you do nursing school instead, then go into critical care as I mentioned above. Then go for the bachelors degree in nursing (BSN) which takes about another year. After that, go for the doctoral degree as a CRNA or an NP. That takes another three to 4 years, but you can continue to work as a nurse while you are in school, it will cost you a small fraction of medical school costs, and you get to graduate wilth the title of 'doctor'. As an NP you can work with physicians and do most of what they do (rounding, assessments, writing orders, etc.) But CRNA is my pick because you get to make 'doctor money' in that career.