The phrase ‘that’s so gay’ is the central issue in a civil lawsuit filed by the parents of Rebeka Rice.
Rice, now 18, was a freshman at Santa Rosa’s Maria Carillo High in California in when some classmates were giving her a hard time about her Mormon upbringing, asking her questions like: “Do you have 10 moms?” Rice’s sharp reply: “That’s so gay.”
She received a warning in her student file and her parents then sued the school claiming her First Amendment rights were violated when they disciplined their daughter for uttering a phrase “which enjoys widespread currency in youth culture,” according to court documents.
When Rice testified in court last week about the 2002 incident, she said the phrase had nothing to do with anyone’s sexual orientation. “That’s so stupid, that’s so silly, that’s so dumb,” she said she meant when she uttered the phrase.
School officials say they took a hard line approach against Rice’s statement after two boys were paid to beat up a gay student the previous year.
I’m curious to know what you think about the phrase ‘That’s so gay’? Is this a case of political correctness gone too far, or should we be teaching our children to use different words and phrases that don’t contain words considered by some, like ‘gay’, to be derogatory?
I think Inigo Montoya said it best: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”