Anti-homosexual epithets have become a common part of high school students’ vocabulary, as a casual listen in campus hallways and athletic fields might indicate. Teens have turned such words as “fag,” “gay” and “homo” into all-purpose pejoratives to describe anything from an irritating person to a dreaded homework assignment.
“[Gay] has become a slang term,” said Malibu High School junior Lukas Mehring.
“When most people say it, they don’t mean it in a good way, but not in a derogatory way either,” added junior Joseph Bolter.
One MHS junior, who asked that his name not be used, said he often uses anti-gay terms as slang. “I don’t hate [homosexuals],” he said, but “I am just not comfortable with it.”
Other MHS students are not so apathetic to the use of such words.
“By using such words they are inadvertently denigrating homosexuality,” said senior Avi Mendelson.
Though senior Jeremy Johnson does not condone the use of anti-homosexual terms, he says that “it’s derogatory if you say it in front of a gay person,” but not in the way that the words are usually used by students.
While girls are not unknown to make anti-homosexual remarks, it seems to be more common among boys. Senior Grace Blauner sees this as a sign of common male adolescent insecurities.
“It is because guys are more insecure with their own sexuality,” said Blauner, who spent this past summer at UC-Santa Barbara researching heterosexual reactions to homosexuality. She found that “the male participants were exceedingly more homo-negative than the female participants.”
Gloria Martinez, vice principal at MHS, admits the use of anti-homosexual slurs on campus but does not see it as a major problem.
“When we [the MHS staff] hear it, we say it is not appropriate,” said Martinez. “If it becomes a problem, there are consequences, such as detention.”
“At the very least, the student will be warned and the parents called for any such harassment,” said Principal Mike Matthews. “Over the past eight years, I have suspended students for harassment.”
Many overlook the actual meaning of these words, failing to realize that they hurt.
“Throughout middle school I went to the administration every week in tears because people were calling me gay,” said Johnson. “The administration wouldn’t do anything because they said they had to catch the person in the act.”
Matthews vaguely remembers Johnson’s complaints. “I do not recall the exact follow-up from this student’s concerns from events that occurred six years ago, but I do know that we did meet with the student and his parents to discuss his concerns,” explained Matthews.
“Verbal harassment is greatly impacting young gay students,” said Marla Weiss, a teacher at Beverly Hills High and a member of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network. She added that gay students are often unable to tell anyone about the harassment. The student “simply goes home, cries and then comes back to school the next day to hear the same thing over and over again.”
School districts across California have established programs aimed at preventing homophobia among high school students. In 1999, Gov. Davis signed a law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity at California schools.
But establishing acceptance of gay students is far from easy. Anthony Colin, 16, of El Modena High School, was at first prohibited by the Orange County Unified School District to establish a gay/straight alliance on campus. After a year of court hearings and intense opposition from the school board, parents and students, Colin was finally allowed to establish the club. He was recently awarded the Spirit Endurance Award by Amnesty International for his gay rights activism.
A report by the Massachusetts Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth in 1993 found that 97 percent of students in public high schools report regularly hearing anti-gay remarks. And, according to a National Anti-Gay/Lesbian Victimization Report conducted by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in 1984, 45 percent of gay males and 20 percent of lesbians reported having experienced verbal and/or physical harassment in high school due to their sexual orientation.
The great danger is that verbal abuse can lead to physical violence. Gays and lesbians, according to a 1995-1996 Human Relations Commission’s Report on Hate Crimes, comprise the second largest group targeted for hate crimes in the United States. Anti-gay hate crimes continue to rise, according to an FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program, which said that in 1998 there was a 14.3 percent increase in reported anti-gay hate crimes. It is suspected that most anti-gay hate crimes remain unreported.
And fear and hatred of homosexuals can be deadly. Who can forget the murder of young Matthew Shepard in the fall of 1998, who was targeted because he was gay?