I'm trying to think if there has ever been a similarly popular phrase that was in reasonable interpretation an insult to blacks, or to jews or whatever.
I can't come up with one. So I guess the gay one is unique. But I can't help making the very imperfect analogy that blacks finally diffused the horror of the infamous "N" word when they started cheerfully referring to each other that way.
I know the better analogy is when gays happily call each other "Fag" or "Queer" and I think that has done wonders to take the sting out of those insults.
I undertand "That's so gay" is not the same at all, and yet I still think the best way to take the often unintended sting out of it is to just shrug it off or, as I do, say it just as constantly and breezily as straight kids do.
That's just my opinion. I try not to say it around my homosexual friends who are bothered by it. I haven't always been successful in that, and I apologize.
But I DO think it's only worse if we make a big deal about it, and becomes harmless to the extent we just accept it as a phrase that, in all honesty, does not mean "That's not a good thing because it's just like when men suck each other's dicks."
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