"Don't be retarded", "I'd rather kill myself", "Why are you being such a girl about it?", "That's so gay"...
Often, our common dialect becomes just another way to put down a minority, and for some reason it is simply accepted by the majority.
I had a personal experience with this earlier in the week; a younger peer was participating in an event I was running through our school, I heard him ask his friend to stop being "so gay" and had to intervene. At first the boy felt that he was in the right and I was overreacting, he was "just joking around" and it "wasn't mean to anyone". This forced me to teach him a harsh life lesson, but I'm glad he learned it from me. I responded honestly, "I'm gay; when you use my sexuality as an insult amongst your friends, that hurts. What if someone less confident than myself heard that, someone who wasn't out, who was embarrasssed by their sexuality, how would they feel?" Obviously, this kid shrank to about three times his size, I am a well know senior, perhaps the first gay person he's had a confrontation with, and he just insulted me. Humbly he apologized and we were able to hug and move on.
Some people can be much more ignorant and much less malleable, hence the continuous promotion of hate through slang. Yesterday, I found a website called NoHomophobes.com, it's purpose to keep track of hateful speech being circulated daily through the twittersphere, check it out!
Remember to be kind for even the little things you say or do can change someone's life, for better or worse.
Photo source: Example poster from the ThinkB4YouSpeak.com website & campaign.
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