i guess it depends on the man and the skirt.
if a "large" guy with a long beard wears a pink mini-skirt then... well...
but look at gothics. u see them often in the city i live in and its not unusual that gothic guys wear long black skirts. and long black skirts dont look that bad on some guys.
then i see often guys in the university im at wearing skirts (well, not daily but once in a while). then it depends. one in my course was wearing a yellow one with flowers for a while. to that thing i just shrugged. the skirt would look ugly on everyone.
about wearing the stuff open in society.
the named gothics can do so i guess. even without skirts, people look at those who have silver chains and spikes on their clothing and whatever. the skirt doesnt really change that.
on other guys it just depends as well. on slender guys its ok i guess, if the skirt is not too short or eye-catching.
but on many guys it just looks silly. i guess thats mostly because we are not used to it. but why it looks silly doesnt really matter, since the reason of not beeing used to it cant be changed easily, unless suddenly that many silly people run around that they stop looking silly for us, but this wont happen.
the problem is imho, that guys who wear skirts have to take care where they wear them. some guys like beating up those who wear skirts just because they look different, as sad as it is.
i personally dont mind guys wearing skirts. i mean, there are even brands who make skirts for men. about myself wearing one? nope, wont do so. why? because i dislike to be confronted with people i dont know. if im going somewhere, then i dont want to be disturbed by people i dont know.
if our society would be so far that we would just shrug to people looking different, hey then i might try wearing a long black skirt that fits to my long black leather cloak. in the end, the difference between a long leather skirt and long leather trousers is just a tiny piece of sewing...
but as long as i have to fear to be harrassed by people i dont know for wearing a skirt i wont do so. and well, i can live with this.
oh, and im not gay