"That's So Gay" Is Jt So Wrong | Psychology Today

Contents:

• "THAT'S SO GAY" IS JT SO WRONG
• AMERIN SULTS/ ROGATORY NAM FOR GAY PEOPLE
• GAY SULTS
• STILL LOTS OF GAY JOK
• EDORIAL: STOP SAYG “GAY” AS AN INSULT.
• ANTI-GAY SLURS NOT TARGETED JT AT GAY MEN
• WHY IS THE TERM "GAY" USED AS AN INSULT TO MASCULY?

"THAT'S SO GAY" IS JT SO WRONG

Usg gay as an sult is ok.

When someone “gay” as an sult, I gantee you ’s jt bee of how easy is to say and spell. Not bee they are g malicly agast gay people. Tons of words have more than one meang, so why not jt look at the dictnary, the word gay ed as an sult means “foolish, stupid, or unimprsive.

” Why not jt accept the new meang and ll a day, after all, the word gay has a send meang already, meang “lighthearted and reee. The same as g gay as an sult don’t imply that gay people are bad.

AMERIN SULTS/ ROGATORY NAM FOR GAY PEOPLE

I don’t mean that n’t be ed as an anti-gay thg, I thk the negative stigma should be removed and should be accepted as jt another fn of a word. I try not to e gay as an sult, but shouldn’t be seen as a slur.

Spend any time around teens, and you’re likely to hear the mon exprsn, “That’s so gay" — even among gay kids. If you ask them about , as some rearchers have, they often will sist that is not tend as homophobic language, jt a harmls phrase to exprs tratn or somethg siar.

GAY SULTS

Studi reveal that 30 percent of gay adolcents stggle wh suicidal thoughts. “That’s so gay” is always pejorative, always harmful, and always homophobic. Thk about this: For thoands of years, religns have lled homosexualy an abomatn.

People still get murred if someone thks they are gay, and not jt other untri. Gay Equals Sex.

STILL LOTS OF GAY JOK

When most people hear the term LGBT (lbian, gay, bisexual or transsexual), for stance, they equate to havg adult sex. Another client’s mother once ught him lookg at gay porn, and said, horrified, “You’re not gay, are you?

” Later when the parents learned their children were gay, they apologized to them for sayg the thgs, but the damage was already done. I heard you say whout knowg I was gay.

Hearg kids sayg, “that’s so gay” every day mak the people and everythg else around them qutnable: Are thgs safe or dangero? What, then, n be done about makg kids (and the rt of ) more aware of the harm g such phras as “That’s so gay?

EDORIAL: STOP SAYG “GAY” AS AN INSULT.

But parents who are enough aware of language’s substrata n help by helpg their kids’ schools unrstand the value of practicg the same kd of zero tolerance for homophobic language that they do for racist or anti-Semic or bullyg language. The bt thg I have seen is the mpaign “ThkB4YouSpeak” by GLSEN (Gay, Lbian School Edutor Network). Anti-LGBT remarks such as “that’s so gay” are often untentnal and a mon part of teens’ vernacular.

Are we gay people? I n fd ltle evince of this on the ter, but sce gay culture is passed down through hearsay and gossip, I’m cludg this.

ANTI-GAY SLURS NOT TARGETED JT AT GAY MEN

Some archivist or queer historian may rroborate or squash this ia, one I heard om a gay elr and pass on to you — that “queer” was actually the word preferred by the first wave of queens, h om the closet, sweatg word-of-mouth disthequ that migrated through the cy. Acrdg to the ter, “queer” first beme an antigay slur durg the trials of Osr Wil.

WHY IS THE TERM "GAY" USED AS AN INSULT TO MASCULY?

So many zgers are rerd om those trials that this seems plsible: Sir John Douglas, the Marqus of Queensbury (serly), who first lled Wil a sodome and lnched the gay playwright’s epic mise, reportedly lled Wil a “snob queer” durg the proceedgs. A mon slogan you n still fd on T-shirts and queer bars across the untry is “Not gay as happy, but queer as ‘fuck you. “Queer” addrs the fluidy of genr and sexual orientatn and f those who e as people foced on problems largely ignored by the gay rights movement: racism, wage equaly, women’s rights, transphobia, and so on.

People wh inti outsi “gay, straight, or bi” feel reprented by “queer. Homo.