"Man, that's so gay." No doubt you've heard that before, and it's pretty doubtful the person who said it meant it as a compliment. Anti-gay language on the whole isn't an uncommon occurrence, and it's surprising that often otherwise reasonable and unprejudiced people have used the phrase. But fortunately, simple awareness can change this.
To address this growing issue, The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network recently forged a relationship with the Advertising Council, an amalgam of advertising professionals working together for the public service, to help publicize the negative effects of such language. The ad campaign will take the form of numerous radio and television ads that feature B-list celebrities like Hilary Duff and Wanda Sykes to educate youth about the true impact of their language. In each case, Duff and Sykes explain how using "gay" as a synonym for "dumb" or "stupid" creates unreasonable and false associations between the words. While it's unfortunate these ads are necessary, they do illustrate an interesting point about the AU community.
AU prides itself on admitting students from a variety of different political, economic and geographic backgrounds. Those backgrounds may include people less welcoming or inclusive of gay people. Since AU is so progressive, most of these students quickly realize the speech patterns and phrases they took from home may be in conflict with the AU community's overall attitude. That's a good thing.
What about students who attend less progressive universities? Without this ad campaign, the prevailing atmosphere of hostility surrounding each university may continue, simply because students don't fully realize how their language affects those around them. It's also possible that there are cases of genuine prejudice. While this type of occurrence is rare at AU, it's easy to forget there are many places around the country where genuine intolerance is abundant. This campaign also encourages consideration and discussion of that issue.
Most of the time, though, the people using the phrase aren't prejudiced. They're not bad people. They're just unaware that their language frames the way people consider "gay" as something bad or detrimental. So this campaign should help on a broader level. It is important to note though, that language is trendy. It's possible the recent increase in the use of anti-gay language is a result of the amount of press the issue of gay rights has received in the media. Regardless, the hope is that this campaign will accelerate the phase-out of "that's so gay" in day-to-day vocabulary.
The campaign is also a vindication for the gay and lesbian community. The impact of a national initiative that champions equal rights should not be overlooked. Until that dream comes to fruition, students at AU and elsewhere should continue to practice and support tolerance everywhere.
