Wanna see me get mad?
Aug. 26th, 2003 01:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rootofnewtIf you're a friend of mine and you use the word "gay" as a synonym for stupid, wrong, lame, etc, please understand that *every single time you do this*, it cuts me. And when I say kids die because of word choice like that, I mean it. When you say something like math homework is so gay, you demean human beings. How would you like it if your gender, race, or religion were a synonym for stupid, dull, and lame? Sure, the witty part of my brain rejoinders Math must be pretty damn cool then, but that's only because I'm an adult with a reasonably well developed sense of identity and self-worth. I also happen to like math, but that's not important here.
When you keep using gay like that, people start to believe it. The gay kid sitting next to you believes it. The kids around you who might or might not be gay believe it. The belief that gay people are somehow abnormal persists and it can lead to pain, violence, and death.
Some stats show that 30% of all teen suicides are LGBT youth. LGBT teens are two to six times more likely to commit suicide than their non-LGBT peers. There are many reasons, but the near constant barrage of homophobic comments that so many people toss off without thinking contributes to the decay of self-worth (it also contributes to violence perpetrated against LGBT folk) and the isolation many gay people experience.
So when I say that using words like fag and gay as pejorative terms kills kids, I mean it. And I hold anyone who uses them responsible for the pain, violence, and death those words inflict whether directly or indirectly.
When you keep using gay like that, people start to believe it. The gay kid sitting next to you believes it. The kids around you who might or might not be gay believe it. The belief that gay people are somehow abnormal persists and it can lead to pain, violence, and death.
Some stats show that 30% of all teen suicides are LGBT youth. LGBT teens are two to six times more likely to commit suicide than their non-LGBT peers. There are many reasons, but the near constant barrage of homophobic comments that so many people toss off without thinking contributes to the decay of self-worth (it also contributes to violence perpetrated against LGBT folk) and the isolation many gay people experience.
So when I say that using words like fag and gay as pejorative terms kills kids, I mean it. And I hold anyone who uses them responsible for the pain, violence, and death those words inflict whether directly or indirectly.
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no subject
Date: 2003-08-25 11:35 pm (UTC)people don't understand the power that their language has. my sister's boyfriend doesn't understand and i don't think a lot of my family understands why his ignorance bothers me.
i remember walking down the hall in high school and hearing that kind of stuff said all the time. i would call my friends on it a lot, but i don't know if i really did that with many people. a lot of kids knew not to say things like that around me, but they didn't really understand why. and then i went to that horrible christian college and kids there said it constantly, but i was so afraid of being outed (when i refused to be out to myself anymore) that i kept my mouth shut. needless to say, i don't do that anymore.
all of this rambling to say: amen, sistah!