by Brian P. Foley, The College Baseball Blog
I was recently reading an article by LZ Granderson about an experience he had in New Orleans where he had an incident with a group of men who made anti-gay comments to him. I have no idea if LZ Granderson is gay or not but the guy should be allowed to go out on the town without a group of men feeling insecure with themselves that they need to start making fun of him. The full article is available here.
Anyways, this article struck me as I dealt with many gay students during my days of being a college student. I was very involved in the athletic department with the student athletes where it was a running joke that the entire women's ice hockey team were lesbians and some of the other female athletes. Why do we not have the same reaction for a male athlete? Remember when Esera Tualo came out and the reaction around the football world was crazy. Everybody is so scared of being in the same locker room as a gay male athlete. Why are we scared of this? Seriously? Think the guy is checking us out?
I ended up in my senior year of college living across the hall from a freshman who was very flamboyant and obviously gay. I went into one of my Youth Culture classes and come to find out this young man was our guest speaker for a Senior level class. This kid found every time you use "This is so gay" instead of saying something is stupid was so disrespectful. Do you say "This is so straight?"
What are your thoughts?
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
WHY DO WE TREAT PEOPLE LIKE THIS?
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2 comment(s):
I find what happened to LZ disgusting and revolting. I actively removed that type of usage of the word "gay" from my verbiage while I was in college. A few years ago, I did the same thing with the word "retarded."
Try putting yourself in someone else's shoes. Imagine you had a family member who was gay or mentally challenged, and think about how you would feel hearing those words incorrectly used every day of your life. I've heard coworkers, in professional situations, use the word "retarded" to refer to a poor choice in strategy. Are you kidding me?
It's just not necessary. There are so many words in the English language. Try using a word that isn't potentially insulting and/or damaging to the people around you, or those that they care about.
My apologies for preaching.
I agree 100 percent
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