"When you say 'That's so gay do you realize what you say?"

Wanda Sykes has a new PSA (Public Service Announcement) and it is focusing on the term "That's so gay." I must take a moment to say that I LOVE PSAs, my favorite one is "This is your brain, this is your brain on drugs."

Anyhow. In the clip, there are three teenage boys in a public place having a conversation when one of the kids classically states "That's so gay." Wanda gets up, turns around, and tells him knock it off.

I like this PSA. I remember in high school and college using the term, "That's gay" all the time. I also remember when I stopped using it. At MSU (Michigan State University aka best university on the planet) there was a great focus on diversity and understand cultures/lifestyles different from your own. My sophomore year, I decided to become a Residence Hall Assistance. Basically, I live in the dorm for free in exchange for serving as the Dorm/Floor Mom. I was required to put on programs for the floor/dorm and participate in various programs around campus in order to grow so that I could be prepared to deal with my residents, provide conflict resolution, etc.

It was LBGT week, which counted as one of the items on my diversity training, so myself and another "Hall mom" and "Hall Dad" decided to go to some of the festivities around campus. I remember going to the town hall meeting and hearing the countless stories of fellow students, discuss eating in the caf, going to parties, etc and hearing the word used to describe their sexuality as something stupid or silly. I thought to myself, wow, how ignorant I had been and how using that word to signify something that I was frustrated with or wanted to describe as ridiculous I would substitute the word "gay."

After the meeting, I made a full blown effort to stop using the word as a substitute for silly/dumb/ whatever. By the start of my junior year, I had successfully removed the word from my vocabulary. Now, I am not saying that I don't use the word "gay". I will say, "oh I didn't know such and such was gay." Or sometimes I'll use homosexual or bisexual. When I am talking with a patient and want to inquire about their sexuality, my famous line is "Are you sexually active with men, women, or both?" So, yes, the word is there, present in my vocab, but no longer used to describe items in a negative connotation.

I'm not trying to preach, I'm just saying, think of something else to say, if you're up for the challenge. If not, well, I don't know what to tell ya.