Comment: How 'gay' became children's insult of choice

I just read an article on the BBC website called "How 'gay' became children's insult of choice". In general the article discusses how children use the term 'gay' as an insult. Of the teachers interviewed 83% said they heard it being used regularly. I think it is interesting that this term is used so prevalently by kids to get at each other - why this term and not another? The article at points attempts to dissassociate the term from being specifically about homosexuality, saying that it is often just used to refer to something as "rubbish" - butstill, I suppose, why is this term used and not another. Potentially, we don't want to admit that homophobia is rife in British schools - when challenged on the usage, people may simply recognise that such a term is inappropriate and defend the potential for being seen as homophobic by claiming it has nothing to do with homosexuality.

I think it is a real shame that "gay" is used so prevalently in the school playground. Homophobia in all forms is wrong. I remember hearing people being called "gay" as an insult while I grew up. It made me question myself; it heightened my sense that there was something wrong with me, that I wasn't as good as the other guys. It wasn't that I was just the same as all the other guys, but that I was gay. It was actually that I was just the same as all the other guys, and if I could let that sink deep within, my homosexual feelings would diminish and my true heterosexuality would come forward. I believe the insults of kids help to ground even further this sense of being different for the 'pre-homosexual' boy. Being labelled as "gay" can be a first step to identifying yourself as gay and taking on the lifestyle that "being gay" offers.

Kids are more expressive than adults. What they think comes out more clearly. I wonder if kids are simply displaying the unease that the majority of adults have with homosexuality, which their parents more and more cover over with the myths perpetuated by the gay rights lobby. Just a thought.