As we all know, LGBT rights and respect have come a long way over the past few years, with awareness and acceptance thriving. However, there is still an alarming amount of homophobia ingrained into our day to day lives. One of the worst cases of this is the use of the word "gay" as an insult or simply as a synonym for "bad." For a stretch of time a few years ago, it felt like everyone in my life used "gay" as an insult, and it felt normal. Now I believe more people are realizing that it is offensive and hurtful to use it in this way, and are stopping. However, there are still concerning amounts of people who use "gay" as an insult and do not see the issue. I personally know people who support LGBT people and rights and etc, but yet still think it is ok to use "gay" as an insult.

Firstly, I find it important to say that a majority of these people are not even intending to actually call something or someone gay when they use the term as an insult. Mostly, it is not being used to describe something as LGBT, but simply to call something bad. This is still rude and offensive to say, as gay does not equal bad. While people are using gay in this way, I doubt they consider how someone actually gay would feel. After years and years of being suppressed, bullied, harmed and murdered for their sexuality, I doubt anyone would want to casually hear you say "Wow, isn't this so gay?" People lived in fear of the word gay for years due to the consequences associated with it, and now, as people began to take pride in it, people have turned it into a less-harmful insult. Still an insult nonetheless.

Now, if you are one of those people reading who uses gay as a synonym for bad, here are some tips on how to stop using it in this harmful way. The most important thing to remember is simply that the word gay doesn't mean anything remotely close to bad. Not even close. So every time you may slip up and say it, just think to yourself, "wait, this thing is not actually gay" and soon enough you will understand how silly it is to continually misuse the word. If you need more help, here's a great Wiki How made for this specific purpose. And if you still want to use gay as an insult after this article, here is an article written by someone else that may be able to convince you further. If anything, I hope more people begin to realize how uneducated they sound while using gay as another word for bad.