Whenever I post something about High School Musical (like here and here), the world's tweens and teens lash out at me and leave vitriolic comments that are unintentionally hilarious in their utter seriousness, rank naivete, and sheer ferocity. Their anger is born not out of my disdain for HSM (I'm actually a fan and can karaoke to "Bet on It" like a 13-year-old Filipino girl), but out of a gross misinterpretation of my use of the word "gay." I don't use the word pejoratively (look it up, tweens!), but to young America "gay" is still the ultimate insult, one of the most horrible things you can call somebody or something.

When I describe a movie, a character, a dance sequence as "gay," it's a badge of honor--but kids don't see it my way. Behold some nasty comments:

* this article makes me want to punch you in the face.... go f*** yourself.

* don't call us tweenyboopers. or u'll get ur ass kicked by a bunch of tweenyboopers. so shut the hell up.

* when i figure out where you live i'm going to shove my school's flag pole up your ass!!

* Well your gaytarded

(For a more complete list of my favorite angry comments, go to my Bamboo Nation blog.)

Apparently, even those in our own community vilify the word "gay" and wish it to be stricken from colloquial speech. A homosexual college student (I assume he's in college from his e-mail address) posted this comment, referring to a post in which I point out that an HSM character is gay:



The gay community is really disappointing; it's exactly this kind of false representation that makes me loathe to identify myself with the word "gay." These articles solicit so many angry, prejudiced--albeit mostly superfluous and grammatically incorrect--comments precisely because they are, in and of themselves, largely inappropriate. By bastardizing the word "gay" yourselves, are you not justifying its colloquial use as the adjectival catch-all for the undereducated American public? By constantly highlighting what's "gay" and what's not, are you not simply facilitating the kind of discrimination the community should, in all good sense, aim to avoid? What kind of a model do you hope to achieve in this? Remember: no other (successful) social movement in history has ever focused merely on difference ("We're here, we're queer", etc.), but rather on the fundamental similarities that connect us all. This entire blog should seriously reconsider what it means to represent--and who it is they believe they are representing--because, as a gay man, but more importantly as a citizen, I feel no connection to this community whatsoever.

I've worked in educational theater, and entire programs have been created to teach young people that phrases like "that's so gay" are harmful and should be removed from everyday use. And more progressive schools try themselves to educate students about the issue. Well, you know what? It's not working. Spend some time on a school campus, ask your teacher friends, or read comments on QueerSighted, and you'll understand that it's a losing battle that may never be won.

My solution is not to continue trying to strike "that's so gay" out of the mouths of youth, but to encourage everybody else to use the word "gay" more--not as an insult of course, but in a positive context. I know the movement to ban the "N" word from American slang is all the rage nowadays, but there was a time when black people were using the "N" word in an effort to reclaim it. I'm proposing a sort of reclamation of the word "gay."

If people start using "gay" in the "correct" context more and more, it can grow into a movement so big that it could render obsolete all the pejorative uses of the word. Remember the song "Alice's Restaurant" by Arlo Guthrie? What I'm proposing is sort of like that. Arlo wants everybody to start singing,"You can get anything you want at Alice's restaurant," wherever they go, especially when they're put in a position to support, say, an unjust war. "And if three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in, singing a bar of 'Alice's Restaurant' and walking out? They may think it's an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day walking in singing a bar of 'Alice's Restaurant' and walking out? And, friends, they may think it's a movement. And that's what it is."

As for the commenter's statement, "no other (successful) social movement in history has ever focused merely on difference ('We're here, we're queer,' etc.), but rather on the fundamental similarities that connect us all," I think he's coming from a place of naivete. Other social movements don't seem to focus on difference because differences are already on the surface. Blacks, women, Hispanics, etc.--they wear their "difference" on the outside. Unless you're flamboyantly gay or obviously transgender, the LGBT community is for the most part "different" internally. This is an important point.

I have always supported affirmative action because it places racial minorities in work environments that are in many instances devoid of diversity. Anybody who's worked in an all-Caucasian environment and then subsequently worked in an environment with people of color know that the workplace dynamic is fundamentally different. Working with African Americans on a daily basis, for example, gets you thinking about racial issues--at the very least on a subconscious level. And the internal discourse that occurs definitely re-frames your relationship to race.

The LGBT community benefits from straight people thinking about gay issues on a regular basis. And that can only happen if we stand out a bit, if our "difference" is brought to the forefront. Bless our "sissies" because they do tend to get people thinking about gay issues more than people who "pass" for straight. Another means? Reclaiming the word "gay" and using it as much as possible.

You can accuse me of naive optimism or of being gaytarded, but, as the President of The "Gay" Reclamation Project, that's how I roll. And one day the world's High School Musical fans will finally realize that I am one of their biggest allies, and we will all cheer together when the third HSM movie finally comes out. But keep your damn hands of Lucas Grabeel, girls--that piece of man meat is mine! And that must make me gay. Gay gay gay gay gaaaaaaaaaay! Damn straight!