New ad campaign attempts to discourage use of 'gay' as disparagement

***wraggster*** · August 13th, 2009, 17:50

In today's society, "gay" is often used as a pejorative, losing all meaning and gaining a negative slant. ThinkB4YouSpeak is on a mission to change that, with a new campaign targeted to raise awareness throughout schools in America about anti-gay bias and reduce the use of ignorant, homophobic language.

The statistics may startle you; according to ThinkB4YouSpeak's website, "9 out of 10 LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) students report being harassed at school in the last year," with over one third being physically harmed. ThinkB4YouSpeak's campaign consists of three posters, replacing the unfortunately common phrase, "That's so gay" with a generalized remark on specific types of students: jocks, cheerleaders and gamers. It would seem the purpose of the campaign is to be hurtful, to showcase how hateful speech is often based on stereotypes.

Gamers are no strangers to hateful speech. Xbox Live user know of the well-documented hate mongering in online multiplayer titles like Halo, and while the majority of players across all platforms are smart enough to know hate speech is wrong (we hope!), it's never pleasant to see it rearing its ugly head.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/08/12/ne...-as-disparage/