I am sorry in advance to the rant, I just can't NOT rant about this. Anyway, so I am supposed to be getting my driver's license soon, and I wanted a lanyard that wasn't necessarily educationally-affiliated. I was on Amazon.com trying to find good lanyards that suited my personality, and I found two. One was black/white, and the other one was very colorful(black/rainbow). When I showed the rainbow one to my mom (who does not yet know of my orientation), she said "No. Definitely not." However, this is not what angered me. Her continuing was what upset me: "That's gay. No. Very gay." :***: I do not understand why people must associate certain stereotypes with specific groups of people! Yes, maybe some communities fit the description, but that does not change the fact that only SOME individuals are matches to the stereotype. And even then, it could be suttle! Nevertheless, that does not give ANYBODY permission to use the word "gay" in a derogatory sense! :bang::***: Is anybody else completely sick of people using this as a derogatory term?
*sigh* homophobes, what can you do? I get what you're saying, even though the rainbow is the"symbol of gays"it doesn't mean that having something rainbow colored automatically makes you gay.
I don't often hear people around where I hang say that. So I'm honestly not used to hearing someone rant about how "gay" something is. It's unusual.. but whenever I do manage to hear someone use the term in a derogatory way, it just really rubs me the wrong way, yeah.
I hear people at my school use it all the time, and silently tell them not to, even though I wish I could blurt out "I'm gay, and that word is not good for this kind of use! IT IS NOT A DEROGATORY TERM!"
I think your mom was saying it's gay because it's rainbow, which sort of is. But the fact that she thinks of gayness as a bad thing is what's irritating. Even if you weren't gay, why would it be bad for people to mistake you as such? With that said, I occasionally call things gay. I'm not offended by it, but I am using it less and less as I get a better vocabulary hehe. Better to insult people and have them not understand you, thus hammering the point home more deeply.
