GAY SLURS=HATE

Here is what you need to know about me, I am striving for the change that I am requesting from all of you. I am not perfect; I am tired of hatred poisoning my life.

I am 22 years old. I am part of a generation in which being “different” seemed to gather a higher appreciation than in previous generations. However, thinking back I have to believe that there was not a high appreciation for each other, but a higher tolerance for discrimination.

Today I will focus on the detrimental effects of allowing anti-gay and lesbian slurs to become part of our daily language.

It is not uncommon or surprising to refer to someone as being “gay” when they are acting in a socially inappropriate way. Seems small, right? People say it all the time. No one thinks twice. As small as it may seem, I refuse to model to younger generations that referring to someone’s race, religion, gender, or sexuality as a negatively defining attribute to the people themselves is NOT ACCEPTABLE! NEVER ACCEPTABLE!

Here is why:

Oct. 1, 2010 -- Rutgers student Tyler Clementi is the fourth teen in three weeks to commit suicide after being bullied for being, or seeming, gay.
Suicide rates and suicidal thoughts are more common among gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered teens. Much of this may be due to bullying, as gay, lesbian, and bisexual teens are about twice as likely to report being bullied as heterosexual teens.
(DeNoon, D. J. Questions Raised by Cyberbullying That May Have Led to Suicide of Rutgers Student, WebMD Health News)

What we may see as innocent, playful banter there are real people suffering everyday with the realities of being bullied and discriminated against for. Suicide rates are at a disturbing peak in the gay and lesbian community. If I made Nazi jokes at the expense of all the holocaust victims, people would be outraged! Why have slurs like “fag,” “queer” and countless others become part of our every day culture and language?

Here are some facts:

The typical high school student hears anti-gay slurs 25.5 times a day.

80% of gay and lesbian youth report severe social isolation

"We were picked on. We were called 'queer' and 'faggot' and a host of other homophobic slurs. We were also used as punching bags by our classmates, just for being different." -- college student, remembering high school* 97% of students in public high schools report regularly hearing homophobic remarks from their peers.

(Sears, James. Growing Up Gay in the South. New York: Harrington Park Press, 1991.)

"I just began hating myself more and more, as each year the hatred towards me grew and escalated from just simple name-calling in elementary school to having persons in high school threaten to beat me up, being pushed and dragged around the ground, having hands slammed in lockers, and a number of other daily tortures." -- a gay male high school student

"Homosexuals are probably the most frequent victims [of hate crimes]" in the U.S.

45% of gay males and 20% of lesbians report having experienced verbal harassment and/or physical violence as a result of their sexual orientation during high school.

19% of gay/lesbian youth report suffering physical attacks based on their sexual orientation.

15% of LGB youth have been injured so badly in a physical attack at school that they have had to seek the services of a doctor or nurse.

20% of LGB youth report skipping school at least once a month because of feeling unsafe while there.

42% of adolescent lesbians and 34% of adolescent gay males who have suffered physical attack also attempt suicide.

(Making Schools Safe for Gay and Lesbian Youth: Report of the Massachusetts Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, 1993)

To conclude for today, there is good in all. None of us are at a place where we are entitled to judge others and doing so unjustlly is harming our youth. Today try to take these words out of your vocabulary:
“Dyke”
“Fag”
“Fairy”
“Queer”
And all the other countless hateful slurs.
If we can remove these from our vocabulary today, there will be less hate tomorrow.
Remember that hatred only breeds more hatred…
Love… Love can and will cure all.