PTA chapter in NY addresses needs of gay students | Associated Press

In this news article, a gay 18-year-old senior at the Portledge School in Locust Valley, N.Y., says many of her peers use hateful vocabulary as generic putdowns without realizing the harm:

These slurs are used very cruelly, and when I ask people about it they say they are not being anti-gay; they are just substituting the slur to mean ‘stupid’ or something like that.

If it's not clear, she's referring to times when other students refer to something as "gay." They don't mean it's homosexual or even that it's cheerful or colorful (earlier definitions of the word). Instead, the mean it's stupid "or something like that."

I used to hear hear my sons using "gay" in that way and have suggested they use other words that aren't hurtful or misleading.