Gay watch

[Marcus Marulus]

Gay watch

At school, we all use 'gay' to mean 'crap' - and the teachers let it slide. But does that make it OK? I don't think so

March 12, 2008

"This computer is so gay!"

For kids, the term "gay" is now associated just as much with a dodgy computer as it might be with sexual preference. But does this make it OK?
For those who claim that the word has moved on from unbridled homophobia and that, as the dictum of GCSE English goes, "language is meaning", I would like to agree. Strictly, though, the usage is derogatory and has only a negative connotation about homosexuality; gay is more than just an interchangeable, mild swear word.

So, even though a "gay" computer shifts the term into the abstract, the veneer of acceptability covers up a sinister and all-too pervasive subtext: that being gay is wrong. Indeed, a survey by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers found that 98% of pupils hear homophobic language at school; I just wonder whether the last 2% of the pupils surveyed were deaf.

Homophobia is endemic in our schools; Section 28's repeal hasn't changed this. Stonewall claims it persists because teachers lack confidence in tackling the issue. This is a sad truth, as many - particularly younger - teachers let it pass in an attempt to fit in with their students.
More disturbingly, some teachers (generally older) see nothing wrong with homophobia. A former teacher of mine (who was, incidentally, also a self-confessed fascist) even "joked around" with students using explicitly homophobic jives. Another teacher I knew, who otherwise seemed politically quite sound, disagreed with the repeal of section 28. Teachers challenging homophobia should be integral in school life, as it is with bullying. But when teachers actively promote it, the kids who might challenge prejudice are undermined and don't stand a chance.
And what becomes the cultural norm is insidious. I have never held homophobic views, yet I found myself, as a young teenager, routinely using the term "gay" in a pejorative way. This was, in the most part, because when my friends and I used it at school, we were rarely challenged by teachers.

So, unfortunately, the only way schools can deal with the issue is to challenge this misuse. But the teachers need to be given the confidence to do so. This should be addressed in the same way as racial abuse would be treated: by explicitly making clear that, at every level of the school, homophobic language, and in particular the use of gay as a casual negative, is unacceptable. Only when this happens and is sustained, will the ghost of Section 28 and what went before begin to disappear.

[source]

[Menydh]

I learned how the word gay came to mean a queer on a funny evening.

I had a date with a friend for dinner in London. She picked the restaurant which was Hungarian, she said. She gave me the address where we had to meet. When I arrived there, some strange feeling ran through my spine. I had seen enough decadence in London already.

-"I'm not getting into there!"- I said.

-"What's the problem?"- she asked.

I pointed up with my finger, at the name of the place, and said:

-"I refuse to have dinner in one of those places with a sick gay show."

Well, like they say to try is to like. And I did try and I did like it.

Then she explained to me during the dinner, how the word gay came to mean queer.

Apparently in the Victorian Age, people used to say that homosexuals were blue or sad people. Later, they rebelled against this label by self-calling themselves gay, because they said that they were not sad but happy to be what they were.

Anyway, the matter is that The Gay Hussar, the name of that Hungarian restaurant that had left me wondering for some minutes, was not a tavern where they performed homosexual sado shows in between dishes, with waiters with moustaches dressed in black leather and chains or, at best, queenies dressed in hussar uniforms, as I had feared.

It was the Happy Hussar and they served a beef goulash which I tried... and I liked.

Saved by the bell!