SITREP: The new way of determining the “gayness” of a person
Cornelle D. Carney
9 August 2010
I had an opportunity to sit-in on a class where high school age students discussed controversial topics. During my one visit to the class I was overwhelmed by the discussion of what acceptable as being heterosexual and that which isn’t.
Before I go into the discussion allow me to give you my view on the whole homosexuality deal. I am not homophobic whatsoever. In fact, I embrace homosexuals as I would heterosexuals because before they self-identified as such they are people. My religion teaches me to love all individuals alike—without prejudice and discrimination.
It was a very confusing discussion. One male student tried to differentiate between acts that would make you look straight and those that would make you look gay. He said that talking to another male on the phone, or texting him for an extended period of time, is gay. His rationale was sketchy and he could not provide and logic behind his reasoning, but he said that “it’s just gay.”
When I was home in the states, I always sent out a good morning text to everyone in my contact list. Another high school age student replied saying, “son dats homo.” So of course I was confused and asked him what he was talking about. He went on to say that texting another guy good morning is “homo.” I never knew that extending common courtesy of saying good morning to anyone was, in fact, homo.
Then we got on the subject of the “no homo” phrase. This is a phenomenon that when an individual says something that might potentially be recognized as “homo” they will immediately say “no homo” after completing their thought. So this got me thinking. I asked him that if I sent a good morning text to him but had “no homo” right after it would that still be homo? His answer was no, it would not be.
I find it so interesting how saying normal things like “good morning” to another male could be perceived as a homo-ish act. Who sets these rules?
Thanks for reading
Cornelle D. Carney
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Very interesting discussion Cornelle. I have always found that the persons who are most likely to engage in describing acts as "gay" or "homo" are most often those who are still uncomfortable or not sure of their own sexuality or masculinity. The term "gay" is often used by today's youth as a term to denote something not right, un-cool, or embarrassing. In some instances, the word has lost almost all of its' sexual connotation.
ReplyDeleteMy honest thoughts about the entire discussion of what constitutes "gayness", is that this is a useless and outmoded way of thinking. I remember when I was a young child growing up with very racially bigoted parents, them using the term "niggery"...as to refer to something as sloppy, poor design, or something made in an inferior way. They would use this word in derogatory ways to demean and insult just the same way young people today use the word "gay" and "homo" to demean and insult.
People decide the meaning of words through use and intent. It is through education that we can teach people that using a non-voluntary personal attribute (race, age, sexual orientation) as a punch line or insult only perpetuates hate and division. We, as a people, must rise about this level of ignorance. The rest of the world is leaving us behind in this area of social growth.