Something Quite Annoying.

*Two Things Before You Read This*

1. I'm straight. I'm a girl, I like guys. That doesn't mean that I have to insult people who aren't just because they are different.

2. I have nothing against football players. I have friends who play football. I have a half-brother who played football. Some of the sweetest kids I know play football. I HAVE NOTHING AGAINST THEM.

Now, For The Rant

My locker is in the middle of the third floor at my school, just like the rest of my advisory's lockers. My advisory is full of football players. Except, these football players are the stereotypical, upperclassmen, jerky football players who have stereotypical, upperclassmen, jerky friends that lean on my locker 4 days out of 5. That alone drives me insane. I try to be the good little freshman, but in the end I kind of turn into the sassy ' GET THE HECK AWAY FROM MY LOCKER ' freshman. But that's beside the point. The thing that really, really grates on my nerves is how many times in a day I hear, "That's so gay. You're so gay. It's all so gay." as an insult. It's starting to drive me up a wall.

The thing is, people who are gay take enough crap as it is. They're not accepted by the Catholic Church, there are millions of homophobes out there who say that they are just choosing to be that way because they want to be different. Honestly, though, would YOU choose to be something that you knew people would just mock you and insult you for, just because you weren't like them ? I didn't think so. People who are gay were BORN THAT WAY. Using that as an insult is like going up to someone and saying, "Why were you born white? I don't like it. Change it."

America is so big on eliminating racism and all that, but what about this kind of thing? Everybody gets so offended if someone uses an insulting name for an African-American person, and that's a GOOD thing. It's helping us to become equal. But what about when people call everything gay, or retarded. Those people can't help it either and yet it's a common insult for most people. When's something is going wrong or not working, "This is so gay." When there's an awkward situation or someone doesn't like where they are, "This place is so gay." When someone does something stupid, "You're so gay." 

Why? Why do we feel the need to say that? To insult them? Are we afraid of them? Because we are scared of people's differences? Think about how you would feel if people were going around insulting you for the gender of person that you likes, or the color of your skin, or your learning abilities. Think about how there might be someone that can hear you who IS gay, or who IS mentally handicapped. Think about how they must feel hearing you throw that insult around. Maybe next time you start to say that, you can stop yourself. Maybe you can even embrace them for their differences and be a friend to them. You might never know how much it means to them. Try it sometime, try freeing yourself from all the labels that our society slaps on people. Try being accepting.

Everything about using gay as an insult is just stupid. It's driving me crazy. It seriously needs to stop.