The girl next to you in health class calls an assignment gay. One of your friends calls another a homo for not talking to a girl walking past him on the street. Someone refers to your bisexual friend as a switch-hitter.
Statements like these are made across Ball State University's campus on a daily basis. And, while these types of comments typically go unaddressed, they can be indicative of deeper prejudices.
Eight years ago, a 21-year-old man lie hanging on a fence in almost freezing weather for about 18 hours after being beaten - all because of his sexual orientation. This man, Matthew Shepard, died three days later in a Laramie, Wyo., hospital.
Although this attack seems distantly removed from our small, Midwestern town, our own campus has had its share of hate crimes. For instance, a former Spectrum president was attacked several years ago, and his attackers carved "fag" into his chest using a hanger.
Even though these types of hate crimes don't happen every day, negative attitudes about the GLBT community aren't always so dramatic - they are nested in behaviors as simple as basic word choice. They are present in the kinds of terms students hear all the time.
Using the word "gay" instead of "stupid" might seem trivial, but it conveys intolerance and insensitivity. Likewise, the close-mindedness that fuels the use of degrading words such as "fag," "homo" and "queer" only perpetuates negativity toward the GLBT community.
We were taught at a young age that "words can never hurt," but inevitably they do. Ultimately, this isn't about the words. It's about the perceptions behind them. It's wearing ignorance and intolerance on a sleeve.
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