Take a walk down any hallway in any middle school or high school in America. The single most common put-down today is, “That’s so gay.” It is deployed constantly, casually, unconsciously. Boys hears it if they dare to try out for school band or orchestra, if they are shy or small, or physically weak and unathletic, if they are smart, wear glasses, or work hard in school. They hear it if they are seen to like girls too much or if they are too much “like” girls. They hear it if their body language, their clothing, their musical preferences don’t conform to the norms of their peers. –Kimmel, p.108
“That’s so gay.” It’s an adjective expression in adolescents. Actually, most of students may not even know what does gay mean in middle schools. They are just saying the words to fit into peers. For example, when I was a girl in middle school, I had said some discriminative words at home and got punishment right away. During my mother’s lecture, I realized I didn’t even know the words while referring them. I said it just because all my friends said it too.
“That’s so gay.” What scenarios do we actually use this sentence? For example, seeing a stupid sweater, an annoying behavior, or a lame hairstyle, are the scenarios kids may refer to gay as adjective to sound cooler. However, there are many words which can represent the real descriptors, such as stupid, lame, or annoying. Using the word, gay, is discriminative to homosexuals. Moreover, there was a high school in Australia banned this sentence, that’s so gay, few years ago. This is a free country, as long as we don’t hurt people or interrupt other’s freedom while pursuing own happiness, that’s fine. Therefore, the unconsciously influenced discrimination should be prohibited in school.
Actually, I am student teaching in high school now and I just taught same-sex marriage two weeks ago to my ninth graders. Surprisingly, most students have their own opinions to support or against about homosexuals and peacefully accept the other side’s ideas. And, most of that are persuasive and supportive. For high school adolescents, they are mature enough to discuss this topic with scaffolding and pre-teaching knowledge. I am very happy that I didn’t hear any aggressive or offensive words during the class nor after the class until now.
It is interesting that the phrase “That’s so gay” was banned in a school in Australia. It is true that this is insulting and discriminatory toward gays, but of course high school students do not realize this at the time. I did not realize this until I was out of high school because during this time it was just the “cool” thing to say. Fortunately today more adolescents are open to homosexuality and are more cautious as to what they say that could be considered discriminatory.