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Is saying "That's So Gay" discriminatory?

I searched around for a discussion on this topic, but I haven't found any. If this topic has already been started or if it's in the wrong category, feel free to delete this and refer me to the other one.

Being a teenager, I hear a lot of my peers and friends saying things such as "That's Gay" and "Don't be a Fag". I try not to comment when they say that, but I really do think that saying something like that should be on the same level as "That's so Black."

I think of it as them replacing the word "stupid" with "gay", so obviously when put in that light, it's a pretty bigoted and judgmental thing to say.

So what do you think, fellow Atheists? Especially the younger ones like me, who probably hear this stuff at school all the time. I just simply don't know what to think about it.

Tags: bigotry, discrimination, discriminatory, dont be a fag, is saying 'that's so gay' discriminatory?, kids, teenagers, that is gay, that is so gay, you are a fag

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Permalink Reply by Dallas Gaytheist on September 12, 2009 at 3:57pm

While not vitriolic, it is intended to be condescending by equating gays with some kind of undesireable quality. I think it is unbecoming for anyone to use it.

By the way, if you put phrases in your tags in quatation marks, they will come across as a single tag: "that is so gay"

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Permalink Reply by Nate Wiesel on September 12, 2009 at 4:00pm

Thanks for the tip. I'll fix that.

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Permalink Reply by Nate on September 12, 2009 at 4:00pm

I just simply don't know what to think about it.

Sure you do.

Just reread your own words.

I try not to comment when they say that, but I really do think that saying something like that should be on the same level as "That's so Black."

...obviously..it's a pretty bigoted and judgmental thing to say.

I think you've answered your own question.

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Permalink Reply by Goz on September 12, 2009 at 4:01pm

I find it to be a put down,yes indeed.
Why can't they say :"That's so religious?"

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Permalink Reply by Dallas Gaytheist on September 12, 2009 at 4:22pm

"That's so religious?"

Hehe. I think I'm going to start using that one.

BREAKING NEWS: Five people killed in a suicide bomber attack at a cafe.

"Oh my god, that is so religious!"

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Permalink Reply by Nate Wiesel on September 13, 2009 at 10:40am

When I start my non-theism club over at my school, the tagline should be

"Bible Club? Pff, that is SO religious." :P

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Permalink Reply by FreeThinker on September 12, 2009 at 4:24pm

It wasn't that long ago that the term "gay" simply meant "happy". The Flintstones theme song said "We'll have a gay old time" and the Christmas song "Deck the Halls" has the line "Don we now our gay apparel". The word first began to be used by the homosexual community in the 1930s and didn't become associated with homosexuals by the general population until the late 1960s and 1970s.

Words can have multiple meanings and whether any offense is meant by it is really a matter of context. Someone could be completely in favor of equal rights for homosexuals and not have any negative feelings about homosexuals, but use the phrase "that's gay" as a colloquialism without any disrespect intended. Unless the term is directed at someone as an intended insult, I don't see a problem with it. I'm a "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" kind of guy though.

At the same time, I don't know what is like to have someone use a term that is intended as an insult towards my demographic. As a white, heterosexual male of English ancestry, I've never had someone call me something I found offensive to my heritage or to who I am as a person.

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Permalink Reply by Dallas Gaytheist on September 12, 2009 at 5:02pm

Thanks for your input, Whitey! :)

Actually, I've heard that the shift from gay/happy to gay/homosexual has been strongly credited to the influence of the movie, Bringing Up Baby.

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Permalink Reply by Melissa on September 12, 2009 at 7:30pm

Wow, Dallas Gaytheist! I had no idea the term was possibly coined in Bringing Up Baby! Thanks helping me learn something today. :)

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Permalink Reply by Dallas Gaytheist on September 12, 2009 at 7:38pm

I can't swear to that, but that is what I heard. I think it is like a lot of words: we seldom know with absolute certainty when they first started being used in certain ways. This clip only indicates that an association between cross-dressing, homosexuality, and the word gay was quite possibly well known enough to pull off an allusion to gayness right in front of the censors. Similary, by the time a word makes it in print, it has usually already been in the spoken language for some time. In this film, it is probably used as an "inside joke."