The word ...

[Redway]

Gay? The other thread had me thinking about this actually, so does it bother you when people use it as a synonym for 'crap' and the like or should it never be trivialised like that?

[King Gizzard]

Use to use it quite alot without it's connotation, just a general word for crap without realising in my mind that it's homophobic, then I just generally fizzled out using it

[Vicky.]

I think to begin with there was obviously homophobic undertones (at least) to using 'gay' as an insult. These days however..not so much. Unfortunately its just worked itself into our language as language has evolved

[Vicky.]

In addition to my post, not one of the gay people I know have an issue with others using gay in a way such as 'those trainers are so gay' or whatever. Some even use it themselves. So from personal experience, when people get bent out of shape over the use of the word, it seems they are getting offended on behalf of others unnecessarily.

[smeagol]

nothing wrong with sayin it in the jokey manner people do with refrence to things. has nothing to do with any person.
it used to mean happy anyway

[Me. I Am Salman]

It's used in a negative way though and is seen as negative because homosexuality used to be viewed as negative, if you get what I mean, so it's directly related to homophobia. It's not like the n word or 'queer' which have been reclaimed by the black & gay community and being given completely new and more positive meanings

And anyway the word gay is still 95% of the time used in a homophobic manner to ridicule something or someone if it's/they're feminine

[King Gizzard]

It's the same as when everyone use to say 'batty' at school, but that has phased out nearly completely

[Saph]

I haven't heard anyone say it for ages, thats like a year 7/8 thing

[Ammi]

..I think it's all in the intent really, like most other words...as Vicky said, I have a friend who is gay, and sometimes I'll say to him, that was just soooo gay, what you did/said and it's not with any disrespectful intent, but someone else could say it with intent to be homophobic...

[GypsyGoth]

I think using the word to mean something is bad or crap is an insult towards everyone who identifies as gay. That's not to say that all gay people will always take offence, after all using the word to mean something not right got pretty prevalent before people started speaking out against it being using that way.

Anyway a load of kids seem to have gotten the idea that gay means something crap.

[jackc1806]

..I think it's all in the intent really, like most other words...as Vicky said, I have a friend who is gay, and sometimes I'll say to him, that was just soooo gay, what you did/said and it's not with any disrespectful intent, but someone else could say it with intent to be homophobic...

That's the difference really, it's hard to make a generalisation without looking at every individual incident

[MeMyselfAndI]

It is homophobic, my history teacher use to send people home whenever they said that word, like 'aw this homework is gay', as they use the word as a negative meaning which is how it's used, like 'your shoes are gay', I can see why people get offended by it, I don't though.

[MTVN]

Clicked the top option mainly because there is never any bad intent there, but I can see the problem with it

[GypsyGoth]

The next time you see something crap, or see something bad happen, say that's so hetro.

See how long it takes before hetro people start to get offended.