"that's so gay"

I definitely don't find it offensive. Gay used to mean happy/carefree, remember? It's just an example of a word evolving over time. We can still use it to describe sexuality, but it's just adapted to mean something generally annoying. That doesn't mean there's any link between the two, especially not when a member of the LGBT community uses it!

I still remember my high school history teacher telling us a story about how shocked he was the first time he heard a pencil being described as gay :icon_lol:

 

I think there are so many better words you can use, that aren't offensive to anyone. There's no reason to use that term, and yeah it is offensive.

 

Alternatives should be used such as: That is so Julie & Julia or that is so Adam & Steve or some variation of those. I can't find the DoSomething.org advertisement but that's where I got the idea of implying that something is "gay" by using two same-sex people.

But using the phrase, "that's so gay" is offensive.

 

So so it can be if used in a bad way, but people like me and your friend don't really like those things because they cause offense in the lgbt community, and someimes if used as a joke can be taken seriously

 

Does anyone still say that, anyway?

 

It happens a lot in middle schools/younger years of upper schools. I've kinda heard it so much now that it doesn't affect me. But occasionally, if it's used in a very derogatory manner, I do get rather angry.

 

I'm sure there are other examples of this, but the word that jumps into my head is "special". Special has a very positive meaning; a special occasion, somebody that's special to you etc. But recently it has evolved so that if you describe a person as special then you are implying they have a learning disability because of the phrase "special needs". Does that mean that every time I describe something as special I'm saying it has a disability? No.

Words have positive and negative meanings. It's all about context, and if somebody says something is gay in an obviously non-homophobic way then I don't see any point in getting worked up about it.

 

It annoys me sometimes. mostly just freaks me out because i'm always afraid someone is going to ask the "question".

 

I don't really get offended by it. My brother who knows that I'm gay used to say it all the time and it didn't bother me before. He still sometimes say it out of habit but then he would go, "oh wait, i didn't mean..." and i would laugh off and say, ''it's alright, no worries." But maybe that's because I know he loves me and accepts me i guess. If it was a stranger and he/she said something like that, I would probably get annoyed by it.

 

Same

 

I use it myself, and a guy who's 100% gay uses it XD. Gay was the go-to insult in middle school, but it's really lost its punch.

 

It doesn't bother me, it tends to be kids not knowing what they're saying.

 

I don't like the term, as it almost always is a synonym for something negative. Or else something 'feminine', as if males can't have feminine traits, or else some or other stereotype of being gay.

When I hear someone use the term, I can't help but think of them as immature, or lacking a decent vocabulary.

One never hears, "That's so straight!", meant to refer to things in a derogatory manner.

 

The word itself isnt offensive to me. Its the fact that the word that came from and (STILL) means to like someone of the same sex.

Yeah, words can evolve, but we still use Gay. It's kind of been stolen in this sense.

History of gay (simplified) - Happy/Carefree-Effeminate-Same-Sex Attraction -> Stupid. the first 3 are all positive/neutral, and now the word is being used with a negative connotation. The fact that people still use it, knowing that its offensive in the sense of Equating stupidity with being "gay" makes me mad. My brother says "he means it in the sense of stupid" and i say that I know, but how is that better? People make a huge ass fuss in my school... In fact, our school had a campaign and guest speakers for "Spread the word to end the word" for the word Retard. I don't use the word anymore, haven't in like 5 years. But... they really couldn't give two shits about people using "gay" to mean the same thing. If gay had naturally "evolved" to mean stupid, i wouldn't care as much. But its parallel to Retard here. Neither were were negative terms, and now they have become out of insensitivity.

A lot of people are starting to get to that point where they are only offended if its meant as "that so - homosexual" but spoken as if it meant stupid. I think its always offensive naturally, even if its not intended to be just because of its history/common present occurance.

Using it as a gay person is a little different It can be a positive thing, but the general public uses it negatively >.<

 

The word retard is almost exclusively negative these days though, that's why people find that one particularly offensive. Also, perhaps more to the point, retard was being used in a deliberately offensive sense, to imply that people have the intellectual capability of somebody with severe learning difficulties whereas, as has been pointed out already, describing something as gay is not comparing it to a gay person.

If we're drawing parallels between the two words, then the only way to resolve the situation would be to go down the same route and stop using gay altogether, including in the homosexual sense of the word. And I'm happy enough to identify as gay that I don't want to lose the word just because some people use it in a different sense.

I hope this doesn't offend anybody, but I want to point out that there have never been similarly used phrases such as "that's so female", "that's so black" etc. which were other groups under the target of massive discrimination. If the word was being used in a discriminatory way, I feel like there would have been a precedent for it.

At the end of the day, words come and go. I'm sure I used to describe things as gay, and my vocabularly has evolved to the point where I no longer do that. It's a trend. It will die out in time. Personally, I'd rather focus my efforts on ending real homophobia than getting annoyed about a non-insulting, if unfortunate, choice of words that will probably be obsolete in a few years anyway.

 

I wasn't aware people still said "that's so gay". I haven't heard anyone say it in years. But, no, it doesn't bother me either.

 

I have never used that word in a negative way before because i do honestly get a lil mad wen people say 'thats gay' etc and i have a friend who says that ALL the time wen shes talking or texting its pretty much her favorite thing to say and i cant tell her not to say it because she is quite homophoboic and doesnt know im gay so i always have to bite my tongue wen she saays that..its really annoying!