(Name-mce) ListServ Lawsuit Asks: Is Kids' Phrase Harmless or Anti-Gay Slur?

[Anselmo Villanueva]

Lawsuit Asks: Is Kids' Phrase Harmless or Anti-Gay Slur?
By Lisa Leff
The Associated Press
Published: Thursday, March 1, 2007

http://www.registerguard.com/news/2007/03/01/a1.gayterm.0301.p1.php?section=nation_world

SANTA ROSA, Calif. - When a few classmates razzed Rebekah Rice about
her Mormon upbringing with questions such as ``Do you have 10 moms?''
she shot back: ``That's so gay.''

Those three words landed the high school freshman in the principal's
office and led to a lawsuit that raises this question: When do
playground insults used every day all over America cross the line into
hate speech that must be stamped out?

After Rice got a warning and a notation in her file, her parents sued,
claiming that officials at Santa Rosa's Maria Carillo High violated
their daughter's First Amendment rights when they disciplined her for
uttering a phrase that ``enjoys widespread currency in youth
culture,'' according to court documents.

Testifying last week about the 2002 incident, Rice, now 18, said that
when she uttered those words, she was not referring to anyone's sexual
orientation. She said the phrase meant: ``That's so stupid, that's so
silly, that's so dumb.''

But school officials say they took a strict stand against the putdown
after two boys were paid to beat up a gay student the year before.

``The district has a statutory duty to protect gay students from
harassment,'' the district's lawyers argued in a legal brief. ``In
furtherance of this goal, prohibition of the phrase `That's so gay'
... was a reasonable regulation.''

Superior Court Judge Elaine Rushing plans to issue a ruling in the
nonjury trial after final written arguments are submitted in April.

Derogatory terms for homosexuality have long been used as insults. But
the landscape has become confusing as minority groups have tried to
reclaim terms such as ``queer,'' ``ghetto'' and the n-word.

In recent years, gay rights advocates and educators have tried
teaching students that it is hurtful to use the word ``gay'' as an
all-purpose term for something disagreeable. At Berkeley High School,
a gay student club passed out buttons with the words ``That's so gay''
crossed out to get their classmates to stop using them.

Rick Ayers, a retired teacher who helped compile and publish the
Berkeley High School Slang Dictionary, a compendium of trendy teen
talk circa 2001, said educating students about offensive language is
preferable to policing speech.

``I wouldn't be surprised if this girl didn't even know the origin of
that term,'' he said.

Rice's parents, Elden and Katherine Rice, also claim that the public
school employed a double-standard because, they say, administrators
never sought to shield Rebekah from teasing based on Mormon
stereotypes. They are seeking unspecified damages and want the
disciplinary notation expunged from Rebekah's school record.

Eliza Byard, deputy executive director of the New York-based Gay,
Lesbian and Straight Education Network, said nearly nine out of 10 gay
students her organization surveyed in 2005 reported hearing ``That's
so gay'' or ``You're so gay'' frequently.

``It bothers them a lot,'' Byard said. ``As odd or funny as the phrase
sounds, imagine what it feels like to be in a setting where you
consistently hear it used to describe something undesirable or stupid,
and it also refers to you.''

She said it is OK to discipline students for using the phrase after
efforts have been made to educate them.

Jordan Lorence, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, a
Christian legal organization, agreed that "That's so gay'' carries a
negative meaning and said he would not want his children to say it.
But he said formal discipline is not the answer.

"Reasonable people should say `Let's put a stop to this kind of
search-and-destroy mission by school officials for everything that is
politically incorrect,' " he said.