That's Gay.

[Yuki_Seele]

i like to use "God fucking damn it" or "Christ on a cracker" the 2nd one i'm more fond of.

 

[thylasos]

Just. Stop.

It's worth it.

I absolutely hate this usage, I DON'T CARE IF YOU SUPPOSEDLY DON'T MEAN ANYTHING BY IT, IT STILL HURTS, at least if you're not heterosexual in any way.

And often if you are entirely heterosexual, it'll still bias people against you, as an unthinking twunt.

Welcome to the new world.

 

[thylasos]

As for changing it, just have to sort of pound it into your head. Stopping a habit takes a lot of mental work, just ask a smoker

Yes. But nicotine has an addictivity level similar to heroin.

Using a certain word hasn't.

You just need to think before you speak.

 

[crystalsnow]

Whoopee. This is like the 20 millionth thread on this topic.

Honestly, if it offends you so much, you really shouldn't be on the internet? Hell, I probably just offended you didn't I?

 

[AgDr_ODST]

I sometimes say 'thats gay' but not always, I mix it up....some times I go with 'weak', 'dammit' 'shit' as well as 'oh you've gotta be fucking kidding me'

 

[JasonKaotic]

I don't really say that, usually something along the lines of "For fuck's sake". Works just as good for me.
I don't think it offends gay people though, some of my gay friends (well, more of them are acquaintances than friends but yeah) use the phrase too. They say it jokingly, but it still shows the majority probably don't get dislike the usage.

 

[Phalene]

How old are you? I came of age in the 90s. Gay was probably the most-used adjective throughout the decade.

I do not apologize for it. I know gay people who use gay as an adjective. Sticks and stones and all that. People these days have their OMGOFFENDED meters set to infinity.

For the folks who use Lame, watch out! The disabled will get all pissy about that one too. Well usually not the disabled, just the people who "care" about the disabled.

If sticks and stones n' all that don't bother you and you happily take all words like water off a duck's back, please enjoy your fifteen minute lecture on why treating a group of people with a high rate of persecution is so obviously a sign of being a person without soul or empathy, or at the very least with poor critical thinking abilities.

Look, gay people routinely deal with the risk of being beaten to death, arrested in many parts of the world, fired, lose custody, be denied services and pensions and otherwise being treated like second class citizens and have higher than average suicide rates connected to the level of daily persecution they face. If you see no problem what so ever in urinating of such a besieged minority I personally feel that you are a horrible person. You are actively contributing to the abrasive, insidious and awful attitude that pervades our society and are a sort of social cancer. And if you have anything to say to this sort of accusation other than "okay, whatever" or "I'm sorry", and get the least bit emotional about me calling you a blight on humanity, remember, sticks and stones!

Hi, I'm bisexual. No you are not cute when you use my taste in sexual partners to try to describe the unfortunate events in your daily life. Me having sex with another woman has nothing to do with the vending machine eating your money, the guy who camps your spawn points or whatever other small indignity is thrown your way.

 

[Phalene]

I think I'll keep using it, thank you very much.

P.C. bullshit is the reason the word "******" has mutated from just a common word to refer to a black person into a hateful slur against an oppressed minority, which has now made it impossibly derogatory if spoken by anyone but a black person.

Historical accuracy and you, they don't get along very well, do they? Do you have anything to back up your claim, or did you just yank that from your hat because it sounded cool?

 

[ThatDaveDude1]

When I'm walking down the street and I see a man performing fellatio on another man, I say "that's gay!"

 

[Fraught]

Literally everything. "Fuck". "Shit". "****-flavoured umbrellas". "Bugger". "Bollocks". "Balls". "Bloody 'ell". "Blasted". Alternatively, "Blasted be this/source of irritation etc.".

I don't EVER say "that's gay". I don't use gay for everything, because I've solely associated it with either homosexuality or happiness/contentness, so it just...sounds really weird, y'know.

 

[Warlord211]

Why should I care about offending someone? Why do I need to be concerned with being politically correct when there are so many other problems in this world? Everyone who actually takes offense to the phrase "Thats gay" or any variation of it is a over sensitive pussy. Thats just my opinion. As for the actual question of this thread I usually just say fuck or shit. The only time I even use gay is to describe a situation that is actually gay, like if one of my friends is acting homosexual (which, surprisingly, happens a lot) I call them a fag or say they are gay.

 

[lovest harding]

Words don't matter, meaning and context do.
If you're not a homophobe then you're not a homophobe, so it doesn't matter.

Words always matter. Your person feelings on gay people don't matter, if you're saying "that's gay", you're not only associating being gay with whatever the bad thing you're describing it as, you're also saying to everyone else that it's ok to describe this group of people negatively, and that it's ok to use language like that.

If that was true, every black person who uses the N-word is racist...

Without wishing to sound patronizing to them, I'm a lot better spoken than most of my friends, and I hear them using language like that all the time. However, it doesn't bother me because their language is just an insight into how they've been brought up, and I know that underneath it all none of them are actually homophobic. For one thing, I'm bi, and I've never had any abuse from them (beyond occasional jokes, but the key word there being 'jokes')

When the N-word is used it's only used in two instances: When someone is being honestly racist or when someone who is black uses it for whatever (generally) positive reason.

If gay was simply used as an insulting name for a man who has sex with another man (like queer or fag), this would be a valid point. But when the word is taken to mean anything bad at all, it's a whole different ballpark. People aren't using gay just to insult people. They're using it as a substitute for the word 'bad'. Taking a label (that's generally positive or just neutral) for a substantial amount of people and turning it into something that means bad, forces the new connotation on to the group of people (as they share that label).
It's idiotic. As idiotic as if Asian suddenly became the term for bad. "That's Asian!"

It's like I said with my friends though, the language they use is nothing more than phrases copied from their parents and other peers. They're not dissecting what it actually means when they apply X word to Y context, it's almost just a reflex reaction, and it doesn't bother me because I know that if somebody ever genuinely had a problem with my sexuality they would be the first guys to back me up.

That's a problem almost as big as using "That's gay." To use it without knowing the consequences is a huge issue. To not understand that words can and do affect other people is a sign of a lack of empathy. And I can promise that most people do know about and do connect gay to not only the phrase "That's gay." but to homosexuals as well.

In the end, though, as a gay man it doesn't bother me. People can and will say what they want and imply however they choose (although more people need to learn that what can be inferred from a statement is just as important as what is implied).
My issue with it is that it's used by school age children and teens. Gay youth (and youth in general) are incredibly fragile. The world of school is everything to someone in it. It shines a really negative light on gay youth at an age where if someone stands out, then there's something completely wrong with him/her.
Being a teenager is bad enough, but when part of who are is a common phrase used to signify anything bad, it's even harder (speaking from experience). Luckily, I rebelled instead of retreated (to suicide as seems to be commonplace now). But even if I didn't do anything as dramatic, I look back and I hate who I was. I didn't get to run my life because of phrases like "That's gay.", I just got to be a joke and had to react (but I digress).

 

[spartan231490]

Typing the last letter of a text, phone battery runs out.

Go look for keys to shed in house for half an hour, in pocket the whole time.

Buy something from vending machine, it doesn't come out.


When stuff like this happens, I (and many others) are only too quick to use the slang "that's gay". I don't like it. I wish that I didn't.

Nobody means gay 'gay', we mean irritating 'gay' - but it still gets to me that I should use this expression on instinct.

So, escapist, what sort of substitutes do you have, and more importantly, how would you go about integrating them into your reflex vocabulary?

I hate that people rag on this. when you curse, it never means the meaning of the word. We don't actually think that people we call "bitches" are female dogs, we don't care if people we call "bastards" were born out of wedlock, we very rarely yell "fuck you" with any intent or desire to actually engage in intercourse with said person. A curse is a curse. All it means is that you are angry.
You could yell "turkish brick" with the same anger and venom and even meaning that you yell "fucking *****." The words are irrelevant, it's only their meaning that has any significance. If you get angry and say "that's gay" because you believe that being a homosexual is bad, then you should probably stop otherwise, it really doesn't matter what you say, it has no real meaning other than "I'm angry" or "you're irritating" or maybe "you're bad".

 

[sora91111]

I really don't use "gay" in that form, a subtitute for those who do are these. I usually go with these depending on severity

Annoyed: "What the crap"

Angry: "What the hell"

Raging: "What the fuck"

all work.

 

[Torrasque]

Yeah, I use gay all the time, when I have no problem with homosexual guys or what they do.
Hell, my friends and I even call each other gay as an insult, but we still don't mean it as an insult to call a homosexual person, gay.
Its just one of those odd words in my vocabulary. I wish it wasn't so lame, but it is as it is, and it requires too much effort to change.

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

I just curse my tits off, like Man City winning a trophy.

edit - Who cares really? Caring's gay, son...turbo gay.

 

[Cry Wolf]

I usually say "bloody hell", "fuck's sake" or "that's shit".

 

[The Random One]

Yeah, it's sad that 'gay' as an insult is so ingrained in our language. It's at that sad little point of linguistics where it's divorced enough from its original meaning that people can argue it's not homophobic but not divorced enough that that claim is actually true.

Also I don't know why I just said 'our' language. My first language is Portuguese, deal with your stupid language. XP

Personally, I don't say it, not only because I make an effort to be hateful towards a group I legitimately respect, but because when things go belly up it's much easier to just shout some expletive that to ponder on the situation's sexuality. I can shout 'shit' five times in the time it takes one to say 'oh, that's gay', and each shit will have much more intensity. In scientific terms, 'shit' has a much higher cursing intensity than 'gay' (roughly 5.7 picocarlins).

 

[[.redacted]]

*snip*

All obviously true, and I had hoped I'd pointed out in the OP, evidently I failed =(

I merely state that not everyone sees the logic, and that as such it may be worth changing.

[sub]Also, I will have to read this thread tomorrow, it kind of exploded while I was doing other things =S[/sub]

 

[katsumoto03]

The word I currently use in those situations is, "FUCKSHITASSBALLS". It's really useful.

In my opinion, if you use the word "gay" to mean anything that isn't "homosexual", you're being a massive tool.