Non-Normative Gender and Sexual Identities in Schools: - Schools Out

AM: but by using that word as a derogatory put down, I think um some people said they
use of for words like stupid, so they associate the word gay with [//] it’s negative
basically.
SJ: Yeah.
AM: Although they don’t mean homosexual and they are not winding that person up
because they are homosexual, which you’ve just said, if they were consistently doing that
you would see as bullying, because they are using it as a negative term, if it was
persistent in that way, so persistent use of the term gay to mean something negative
would you see that as bullying.
SJ: Yeah.
AM: OK.
SJ: It’s just the way I see it playgrounds and generally is it doesn’t seem to be persistent
towards one person, just seems to be a random term that…
AM: {so it’s the persistency of it that would make it…
SJ: {yeah like it might be, if a group of lads are playing football, um and one of them
misses the ball or one of them like complains about the fact the ball was in when, one of
them might be oh don’t be gay, it was out.
AM: Yeah.
SJ: Like they don’t mean, it’s not, it’s just a word.
AM: OK. When they do that kind of thing, that’s a very good example there someone
saying don’t be so gay that was out. Um do you yourself or other teachers do anything
about that or do you just let it go because you know they don’t mean homosexual.
SJ: We let it go, because we’d let it go if we call them an idiot as well. I mean if they said
don’t be an idiot it was out. We wouldn’t say anything about that either.
AM: OK, I understand that, but I wonder whether you think [//] that if they said idiot, the
word idiot, means idiot, it’s negative, it means idiot. If they are using the term gay to
mean something negative do you not think it would be important to some body to step in
the first time that’s used and explain that the word gay means homosexual
SJ: {doesn’t mean
AM: …homosexual is not negative, so by using the term gay as a negative, they are
associating homosexuality with negatives.