Why do you fear me? Do you fear me because I am different? I don't call you names or go out of my way to hurt you. I don't yell redneck, hick, or white trash to those of you that so proudly display your Confederate heritage. I don't judge you, the upper class, for the endless privileges your parents provide you. Your tuition paid for, your new car, and your designer clothes all in hand with no questions asked.
If you don't want to be me, then don't discriminate against me. You didn't stop. You didn't think. You never gave me a chance.
You throw the word "faggot" and "gay" around as if it's okay. As if nobody cares. The word "gay," according to Merriam-Webster dictionary, is keenly alive and exuberant. Since when did the word mean annoying and stupid? Why do you use the word to degrade me? Is your vocabulary so limited that you must hurt me with the words "gay" and "faggot"? I am not asking for a series of miracles or for you to change the world. I am simply asking you to stop and think. Really stop and ponder your actions and words. Please ask yourself the question: Who does this hurt? It hurts more than you will ever know.
- Anonymous
This is the story of just one Hokie at Tech, but one is one too many. It is up to all of us to figure out ways to make Tech more inclusive and open to people, regardless of how you define them. Do you have a similar story? Come to The Forum Oct. 20 at 5:30 p.m. in Squires. One student who attends will have an opportunity to win a pair of front row tickets to the Maroon 5 concert on Nov. 10.
According to the Principles of Community, Tech firmly believes that we reject any form of hatred. Go to www.sga.vt.edu/FYV and tell us what the Principles of Community means to you in 300 words or less. One more student will be chosen to receive a pair of front row tickets to Maroon 5 for their reflection.
Your Student Government is not only committed to hearing your voice, but acting on it. Submit your story and/or tell us what the Principles of Community means to you. Together, we can make Tech the most inclusive Hokie community ever, but it starts with your voice.
Continue Reading: « Previous12
Leave a comment 5 Comments Write a letter to the editor
All letters to the editor must include a name, e-mail, daytime phone number and affiliation to Virginia Tech. Affiliation includes: year and major for students; position and department for faculty and staff; current city for alumni and parents.
Being different is hard. Unless you had particularly enlightened parents or teachers, you were taught that there is a "normal" to be and deviating from it was wrong. And so the peak of the bell curve grows and those that don't climb it are, yes, outliers. Deal with it. You aren't going to change a generation's deeply embedded vocabulary. Yes, you might reach a person or two, if you put the effort forward, but it won't stop being OK until this generation's children grow up and start looking at their parents sideways for their vocabulary. You should take comfort that most of your age group has shed the last generation's rampant homophobia. I challenge you to walk right up to the next person you hear use the word "gay" and tell them "Hey, I'm gay". Just those exact words. Rather then getting assaulted, physically or emotionally, you'll probably just get an awkward apology, because those people that use that word aren't thinking about gay people when they use it. But now to the thing that annoyed me. To say you don't judge, the essentially claim that you are without prejudice, is a delusion or an outright lie. We all judge. I'm in no way religious, but even I think this phrase might be appropriate here: "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone".
Reply to this Top
Gay means happy, so actually if the homosexual community decided to make that their word then it is their fault.
Gay is a slang term for, well anything that you don't want to do. When I say, "You're so gay," or, "That is really gay," I am not meaning it in a literal sense. What they actually say is, "Stop acting stupid," and, "I don't want to do it it is stupid." Slang is slang get over it because the word wasn't originally meant for you folks either.
Reply to this Top
I think you flatter yourself. And this - one example of many - doesn't help your case.
I have nothing against gays or lesbians. But by all of a sudden turning around and telling the general public (because YES, you ARE a minority- get over it) that they can't use the language they use because it's 'offensive' to you... It's almost childish. "Gay" has many meanings. No one MEANS to insult you, unless they say it to your face. People call other people names all the time. IT'S LIFE. Live with it- go beyond it. And treasure the fact that you don't KNOW what ABUSE IS.
Reply to this Top
I'm addressing the whole article in general:
I think you flatter yourself. And this - one example of many - doesn't help your case.
I have nothing against gays or lesbians. But by all of a sudden turning around and telling the general public (because YES, you ARE a minority- get over it) that they can't use the language they use because it's 'offensive' to you... It's almost childish. "Gay" has many meanings. No one MEANS to insult you, unless they say it to your face. People call other people names all the time. IT'S LIFE. Live with it- go beyond it. And treasure the fact that you don't KNOW what ABUSE IS.
Top
I can't help but feal you somehow missed the entire point. If you one MEANS to be insulting, then what praytell is the meaning and weight of those words. When someone does something you disagree with and lash out at them with the words faggot, gay, or whatever derogatory term you select, what other meaning could you possible have than the derogatory nature, negative history, and evil connotation of the words you select.
An important part of this article is to give you perspective and inform you of the hurt it delivers it rains upon others. Continuing to use words you are told are hurtful, a hurt you could never fully understand, shows you to be the one acting childish. The author asks you to remember the impact your words have on others and charges you to be responsible for their impact. You ARE responsible for your words - yell "fire" or "bomb" in a crowded space and deal with the repercusions. You, unwilling to compromise, demand that the community your words slander change, grow up, tolerate your abuses. They have and do, but rapidly grow tired of your immaturity.
Top