Gay insults
Anti-Gay Slurs Not Targeted Just at Gay Men
The childhood playground can be a tough place with insults flying faster than dodgeballs, and while some children outgrow the name calling, others never seem to. Hurling slurs as adults only exacerbates problems. The employ of anti-gay slurs by heterosexual men against other heterosexual men is the focus of a fresh study by Nathan Grant Smith, an associate professor of counseling psychology and chair of the Department of Psychological, Health, and Learning Sciences in the University of Houston College of Education.
“Our results present that using anti-gay slurs may serve a status-protecting function for heterosexual men: When their masculinity is threatened, they may be more likely to punish other heterosexual men by calling them the f-word,” said Smith, whose findings were published in Current Psychology.
Smith, along with colleague Tyler Brown at McGill University, explored whether heterosexual men who had their status threatened were more likely to use anti-gay slurs against other heterosexual men. A group of 139 heterosexual male college students were randomly assigned to receive feedback on thei
LGBTQIA+ Slurs and Slang
bog queen
Synonyms: Bathsheba (composition between bathroom and Sheba to create a name reminiscent of the Queen of Sheba), Ghost (50s, ghost, because they wander the corridors of the bathroom).
What Do You Tell to ‘That’s So Gay’ & Other Anti-LGBTQ+ Comments?
It doesn’t matter if it is a first grader who might not know what the pos “gay” means, a sixth grader trying to sound cool or a tenth grader “teasing” a confidant. All of these scenarios have the potential of creating an unsafe classroom or school environment and must be addressed. So, what can caring adults do?
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STOP IT…
Keep it simple with speedy responses:
- “Remember, we don’t employ put-downs in this class.”
- “Do you know what ‘gay’ means?"
- “It’s not OK at this school to exploit ‘gay’ disrespectfully to represent something is bad.”
- “You may not have meant to be hurtful, but when you use the pos ‘gay’ to mean something is bad or dumb, it is hurtful.” Follow-up with, “Do you comprehend why it is hurtful?”
- “Using any derogatory word to tease someone is harassment and is unacceptable.”
- “Even if you didn’t mean to offend people who are gay, it is disgusting to call this assignment gay (or queer); if you don’t like something, then say you don’t like it!”
- “It is never OK to say, ‘you act like a young woman (or look like a boy)’ as a put-dow
Boys more affected by gay insults
Hilde Slåtten recently submitted her PhD thesis, presenting the apply of gay insults in the Norwegian lower secondary school and its damaging effects. Slåtten is a research fellow at the Department of Psychosocial Science at the University of Bergen.
“You’ve written a dissertation about how frequent Norwegian youth use gay nicknames as insults, to whom these words are directed, and to what extent the use of such words may cause depressive symptoms on the affected part. Why did you decide to study this?”
“I think the topic is important, and the whole thing started with my master’s thesis. Being a lesbian myself, I wanted to identify schools creating a good climate for gays and lesbians. We hear that the synonyms ‘gay’ is used as an insult among fresh people. It’s important to work against this, as it creates an sympathetic of homosexuality as something negative.”
“Are gay-related insults common?”
“In my study, 54 per cent of the boys had called a companion gay during the past week. The same applied to 30 per cent of the girls. 40 per cent of the bo
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