In the week leading up to the premiere of my documentary, The Gay Word, its trailer was shown in a London cinema. Equal marriage legislation may suggest that society has advanced in its thinking, but there remains a gap in its grasp of gay identity, culture and sexuality.
Saying “eurgh, that’s gay” reveals a lack of collective understanding of what it means to identify as gay. In making this film, I’ve learned just how much of a loaded term gay is. The language we use, consciously or subconsciously, can reflect our feelings towards minorities.
Many older people I spoke to felt strongly that it should it not be allowed to be used negatively. Younger people, whom we might have expected to have more awareness of what it means to identify as gay because of media coverage, were often the demographic defending the negative use of this word. Some gay people I spoke to were content with the word evolving, while there were straight people who were outraged. With just my student overdraft as my budget, I decided to make a documentary exploring how this piece of language had evolved, and speak to people both gay and straight to see how they felt aboutthe word taking on a negative meaning. “The problem with saying ‘that’s so gay’ is that even though you and your friends might know you’re not being homophobic, if you’re using it in a public or semi-public space, other people might see you as homophobic,” he adds.
