Sorry Miranda, Gay Doesn't Mean Stupid

Gay doesn't actually mean stupid, and attempting to redefine a word that is meant to describe a minority group to mean "stupid" is a micro-aggression towards the LGBT community.
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Another day, another homophobe.

West Tigers, an Australian professional rugby team, is the stage for a homophobic scandal. 19-year-old Mitchell Moses had a lapse of judgment that has cost him his NRL (National Rugby Team) debut. Moses admitted to calling a player a "f**king gay c**t." The NRL responded swiftly, suspending the new rugby player for no less than two weeks. The incident was taken care of and justice was served. It seemed it was all resolved that is until conservative voices yelled foul.

New York Native Miranda Devine, a journalist by trade, posted a piece to The Daily Telegraph to defend the Australian rugby player's homophobic slur. In an equally offensive titled piece "NRL bosses are totally gay", Miranda said this about the incident:

"... woe betide the player who offends the gods of homosexuality.

Let's get one thing straight. 'Gay' no longer just means 'homosexual.' The word has changed meaning over the last decade. Young people use 'gay' to mean lame, or dumb or stupid, as in: 'That's so gay.'

South Park even has an episode on it."

Miranda seems to believe that Moses' is being discriminated against (Hey Miranda, that word discrimination -- I'm not sure you know what that means). She also, in defending homophobia, excused the usage of the words lame, dumb, and stupid -- which are all offensive to those with intellectual disabilities as she blatantly makes allowances for such a slur.

What surprises me most is that a journalist, a wordsmith with a far reaching readership, has the audacity to defend the illegitimate definition of a word because "young people" use it that way. Oh and South Park did an episode on it so it must be true. Sorry Miranda, gay doesn't mean stupid. Gay refers to individuals attracted to the same-sex, or at most happy.

Fag is considered a sexual orientation slur. "No homo" is just a way for individuals, who usually aren't confident in their own sexualities, to negate an intimate experience with a person of the same sex worried it will be seen as homoerotic. "That's so gay" attributes negativity to a word that describes a group of people. This is usually done by those "young people" because they're told, by people like you, that being gay is a bad thing. Gay doesn't actually mean stupid, and attempting to redefine a word that is meant to describe a minority group to mean "stupid" is a micro-aggression towards the LGBT community.

Now let me slow down for you, Miranda, since you seem to have trouble with words and their definitions. Microaggressions are "the everyday encounters of subtle discrimination that people of various marginalized groups experiences throughout their lives." These microaggressions are usually unintentional and are not meant to be malicious. But we don't have to be intentional to cause harm.

For example: I may say a sexist comment (and if you know me, you know I'm a feminist). Someone may call me out on my sexist comment because it offended them. I would say, "I'm sorry. Those weren't my intentions. How can I communicate myself in the future to not be seen as offensive?" My apology and lack of intent doesn't make the comment any less sexist; it doesn't even make it any less offensive. We can hurt friends and family members in ways we never anticipated. Their feelings are still hurt regardless of our lack of intent. Our words matter and if we are not intentional with our verbiage, even unintentionally, we can contribute to the marginalization of minority groups.

No punishment that can be handed out by the NRL is too severe for the contribution of anti-gay rhetoric. It is dehumanizing of LGBT people, and no one, not even a sports team, should tolerate it.

Edited by: Chris Klimovski

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