Think Before You Speak Campaign
Encyclopedia
The Think Before You Speak campaign is a television, radio, and magazine advertising campaign launched in 2008 and developed to raise awareness of the common use of derogatory vocabulary among youth
towards lesbian
, gay
, bisexual, transgender
, queer
/questioning
(LGBTQ) people. It also aims to "raise awareness about the prevalence and consequences of anti-LGBTQ bias and behaviour in America’s schools." As LGBTQ people have become more accepted in the mainstream culture more studies have confirmed that they are one of the most targeted groups for harassment and bullying. In an "analysis of 14 years of hate crime data" from the FBI found that gays and lesbians, or those perceived to be gay, "are far more likely to be victims of a violent hate crime than any other minority group in the United States". “As Americans become more accepting of LGBT people, the most extreme elements of the anti-gay movement are digging in their heels and continuing to defame gays and lesbians with falsehoods that grow more incendiary by the day,” said Mark Potok, editor of the Intelligence Report. “The leaders of this movement may deny it, but it seems clear that their demonization of gays and lesbians plays a role in fomenting the violence, hatred and bullying we’re seeing.” Because of their sexual orientation
or gender identity
/expression, nearly half of LGBTQ students have been physically assaulted at school. The campaign takes positive steps to counteract hateful and anti-gay speech that LGBTQ students experience in their daily lives in hopes to de-escalate the cycle of hate speech/harassment/bullying/physical threats and violence.
The campaign was created by the New York office of the Arnold Agency
, part of the Arnold Worldwide Partners unit of Havas, and the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network
(GLSEN). The campaign is the Advertising Council's first LGBT awareness campaign and is trying to achieve an ending to the use of offensive phrases such as "that's so gay". Television commercials for the campaign include singer Hilary Duff
as well as comedian Wanda Sykes
. In 2008 the campaign won the Ad Council
's Gold Bell award award for "Best Public Service Advertising Campaign" from the Ad Council.
youth are four times more likely to attempt suicide than other young people. This higher prevalence of suicidal ideation and overall mental health problems among gay teenagers compared to their heterosexual peers has been attributed to Minority Stress
. Depression
and drug use among LGBT people have both been shown to increase significantly after new laws that discriminate against gay people are passed. Institutionalized and internalized homophobia
may also lead LGBTQ youth to not accept themselves and have deep internal conflicts about their sexual orientation. LGBTQ youths are also very frequently kicked out of their parents' homes at an early age after coming out
.
"Approximately 25 percent of lesbian, gay and bisexual students and university employees have been harassed due to their sexual orientation, as well as a third of those who identify as transgender, according to the study and reported by the Chronicle of Higher Education." "LGBT students are three times as likely as non-LGBT students to say that they do not feel safe at school (22% vs. 7%) and 90% of LGBT students (vs. 62% of non-LGBT teens) have been harassed or assaulted during the past year." In addition, "LGBQ students were more likely than heterosexual students to have seriously considered leaving their institution as a result of harassment and discrimination." Susan Rankin, a contributing author to the report in Miami, found that “Unequivocally, The 2010 State of Higher Education for LGBT People demonstrates that LGBTQ students, faculty and staff experience a ‘chilly’ campus climate of harassment and far less than welcoming campus communities."
Homophobia arrived at by any means can be a gateway to bullying. As seen in the nine LGBTQ youth suicides in September 2010, severe bullying can lead to extremities such as suicide
. It does not always have to be physical, but it can be emotional, viral, sexual, and racial, too. Physical bullying is kicking, punching, while emotional bullying is name calling, spreading rumors and other verbal abuse
. Viral, or cyber bullying, involves abusive text messages or messages of the same nature on Facebook
, Twitter
, and other social media
networks. Sexual bullying is unwanted touching, lewd gestures or jokes, and racial bullying has to do with stereotypes and discrimination
.
Bullying is often dismissed as a "rite of passage
", but studies have shown it has negative physical and psychological effects. "Sexual minority youth, or teens that identify themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual, are bullied two to three times more than heterosexuals", and "almost all transgender students have been verbally harassed (e.g., called names or threatened in the past year at school because of their sexual orientation (89%) and gender expression (89%)", according to GLSEN's Harsh Realities, The Experiences of Transgender Youth In Our Nation’s Schools. These issues have become more mainstream in the 2000s, and even more so in the months of September and October 2010 when a series of suicides got national attention. In August 2010 the US Department of Education (DOE) hosted the first-ever National Bullying Summit. President Barack Obama
has posted an "It Gets Better" video on The White House website as part of the It Gets Better Project, it became the second most-viewed video on the White House YouTube channel. First lady Michelle Obama
attributes bullying and harassment behaviors to the examples parents set as, in most cases, children follow their lead. In March 2011 the President and First Lady hosted the first Conference on Bullying Prevention at the White House co-sponsored by the DOE and the Department of Health and Human Services. At the same time, anti-bullying legislation
, called the Safe Schools Improvement Act, was introduced this week by Democratic Sen. Bob Casey
from Pennsylvania and Republican Sen. Mark Kirk
from Illinois.
"More than 34,000 people die by suicide each year," making it "the third leading cause of death among 15 to 24 year olds with lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth attempting suicide up to four times more than their heterosexual peers." In 2004, 1,985 American adolescents under the age of twenty committed suicide, an increase of 18% from the previous year. Though it is impossible to know the exact suicide rate of LGBT youth because sexuality and gender minorities are often hidden and even unknown, particularly in this age group. Further research is currently being done to explain the prevalence of suicide among LGBT youths
.
, who is openly gay
and is the Assistant Deputy Secretary for the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools at the U.S. Department of Education, has experienced bullying himself at school and has dreamed of this campaign for over ten years. The campaign aims to reduce homophobic slang among youth, and educate parents and teachers on how to create a safe space for LGBT teens. GLSEN and the Ad Council have reported that over half of all students have heard homophobic remarks being made often at school, and 9 out of 10 LGBT students have been harassed at school over the last year. The campaign encourages students to get involved by starting a Gay-Straight Alliance
, educating their peers, and working to create a safer environment for LGBT students. This is the first campaign on GLBT issues since the Ad Council was founded in 1942. The campaign uses the slogan "When you say ‘That’s so gay,’ do you realize what you say? Knock it off." Previously the council has run other anti-discrimination campaigns like "A mind is a terrible thing to waste,” for the United Negro College Fund
, and "Expect the best from a girl and that’s what you’ll get" to promote gender equality
.
GLSEN spent approximately $2 million dollars to produce the campaign, which was released along with GLSEN's 2007 School Climate Survey. It includes three television public service announcement
s (PSAs), six print PSAs and three radio PSAs. The ad was the first ever campaign by the Ad Council, "which directs and coordinates public service campaigns on behalf of Madison Avenue and the media industry", to address any GLBTQ issues. The campaign was done pro bono
by the New York office of Arnold Worldwide
.
In researching the possibility that public service directors, who decide which pro bono campaigns their media outlet will run, they found only a "very small percentage" who would not run the campaign but mainly due to their audience was much older. They also tested how to deliver the messages to "tough and media savvy" kids "that speaks to young people in a tone they do not deem patronizing or condescending." Their goal became "to show the situation in a new light [...] to point out this language can be hurtful and let the kids make their own decisions."
After the first year of the campaign had been reached, the second harder-hitting phase addressing the consequences, "sometimes life-or-death", of anti-gay language was launched. The first phase focussed on showing the television PSAs to get young people to see how their language can be hurtful, the ads combined for "more than $9 million worth of media exposure for the campaign's message since its launch in October 2008." The second phase will be more viral
and enable people to embed banners and materials on websites and in their social media
use. All the materials are downloadable from the campaign site. The Ad Council reports a high recognition of the television spots among teens (41% of teens aged 13-16 nationwide reporting that they have seen or heard at least one PSA) and a recent survey conducted by the Council shows "significant shifts in key attitudes and behaviors regarding the use of anti-LGBTQ slurs." Another downloadable feature is a meter that tracks the occurrence of common LGBTQ slurs such as "fag
" and "dyke
" "in real time—on the popular micro-blogging site Twitter
."
Youth
Youth is the time of life between childhood and adulthood . Definitions of the specific age range that constitutes youth vary. An individual's actual maturity may not correspond to their chronological age, as immature individuals could exist at all ages.-Usage:Around the world, the terms "youth",...
towards lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
, gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
, bisexual, transgender
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
, queer
Queer
Queer is an umbrella term for sexual minorities that are not heterosexual, heteronormative, or gender-binary. In the context of Western identity politics the term also acts as a label setting queer-identifying people apart from discourse, ideologies, and lifestyles that typify mainstream LGBT ...
/questioning
Questioning
Questioning is a major form of human thought and interpersonal communication. The thinker employs a series of questions to explore an issue, an idea or something intriguing...
(LGBTQ) people. It also aims to "raise awareness about the prevalence and consequences of anti-LGBTQ bias and behaviour in America’s schools." As LGBTQ people have become more accepted in the mainstream culture more studies have confirmed that they are one of the most targeted groups for harassment and bullying. In an "analysis of 14 years of hate crime data" from the FBI found that gays and lesbians, or those perceived to be gay, "are far more likely to be victims of a violent hate crime than any other minority group in the United States". “As Americans become more accepting of LGBT people, the most extreme elements of the anti-gay movement are digging in their heels and continuing to defame gays and lesbians with falsehoods that grow more incendiary by the day,” said Mark Potok, editor of the Intelligence Report. “The leaders of this movement may deny it, but it seems clear that their demonization of gays and lesbians plays a role in fomenting the violence, hatred and bullying we’re seeing.” Because of their sexual orientation
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
or gender identity
Gender identity
A gender identity is the way in which an individual self-identifies with a gender category, for example, as being either a man or a woman, or in some cases being neither, which can be distinct from biological sex. Basic gender identity is usually formed by age three and is extremely difficult to...
/expression, nearly half of LGBTQ students have been physically assaulted at school. The campaign takes positive steps to counteract hateful and anti-gay speech that LGBTQ students experience in their daily lives in hopes to de-escalate the cycle of hate speech/harassment/bullying/physical threats and violence.
The campaign was created by the New York office of the Arnold Agency
Arnold Worldwide
Arnold Worldwide is an advertising agency headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The agency has 15 offices in 12 countries, including Amsterdam, Boston, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Melbourne, Mexico City, Milan, New York, Prague, São Paulo, Shanghai, Sydney, Toronto and Washington DC...
, part of the Arnold Worldwide Partners unit of Havas, and the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network
Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network
The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network is an organization in the United States that seeks to end discrimination, harassment, and bullying based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression in K-12 schools. GLSEN is headquartered in New York City and the District of Columbia...
(GLSEN). The campaign is the Advertising Council's first LGBT awareness campaign and is trying to achieve an ending to the use of offensive phrases such as "that's so gay". Television commercials for the campaign include singer Hilary Duff
Hilary Duff
Hilary Erhard Duff is an American actress, singer-songwriter, entrepreneur, and author. After working in local theater plays and television commercials in her childhood, she achieved fame playing the title role in the Disney Channel television series Lizzie McGuire. She also reprised her role in...
as well as comedian Wanda Sykes
Wanda Sykes
Wanda Sykes is an American writer, stand-up comedian, actress, and voice artist. She earned the 1999 Emmy Award for her writing on The Chris Rock Show. In 2004 Entertainment Weekly named Sykes as one of the 25 funniest people in America...
. In 2008 the campaign won the Ad Council
Ad Council
The Advertising Council, commonly known as the Ad Council, is an American non-profit organization that distributes public service announcements on behalf of various sponsors, including non-profit organizations and agencies of the United States government....
's Gold Bell award award for "Best Public Service Advertising Campaign" from the Ad Council.
Background
A U.S. government study, titled Report of the Secretary's Task Force on Youth Suicide, published in 1989, found that LGBTLGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
youth are four times more likely to attempt suicide than other young people. This higher prevalence of suicidal ideation and overall mental health problems among gay teenagers compared to their heterosexual peers has been attributed to Minority Stress
Minority stress
Minority stress describes chronically high levels of stress faced by members of stigmatized minority groups. It may be caused by a number of factors, including poor social support and low socioeconomic status, but the most well understood causes of minority stress are interpersonal prejudice and...
. Depression
Depression (mood)
Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...
and drug use among LGBT people have both been shown to increase significantly after new laws that discriminate against gay people are passed. Institutionalized and internalized homophobia
Homophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
may also lead LGBTQ youth to not accept themselves and have deep internal conflicts about their sexual orientation. LGBTQ youths are also very frequently kicked out of their parents' homes at an early age after coming out
Coming out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
.
"Approximately 25 percent of lesbian, gay and bisexual students and university employees have been harassed due to their sexual orientation, as well as a third of those who identify as transgender, according to the study and reported by the Chronicle of Higher Education." "LGBT students are three times as likely as non-LGBT students to say that they do not feel safe at school (22% vs. 7%) and 90% of LGBT students (vs. 62% of non-LGBT teens) have been harassed or assaulted during the past year." In addition, "LGBQ students were more likely than heterosexual students to have seriously considered leaving their institution as a result of harassment and discrimination." Susan Rankin, a contributing author to the report in Miami, found that “Unequivocally, The 2010 State of Higher Education for LGBT People demonstrates that LGBTQ students, faculty and staff experience a ‘chilly’ campus climate of harassment and far less than welcoming campus communities."
Homophobia arrived at by any means can be a gateway to bullying. As seen in the nine LGBTQ youth suicides in September 2010, severe bullying can lead to extremities such as suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
. It does not always have to be physical, but it can be emotional, viral, sexual, and racial, too. Physical bullying is kicking, punching, while emotional bullying is name calling, spreading rumors and other verbal abuse
Verbal abuse
Verbal abuse is best described as a negative defining statement told to you or about you; or by withholding any response thus defining the target as non-existant...
. Viral, or cyber bullying, involves abusive text messages or messages of the same nature on Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
, and other social media
Social media
The term Social Media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0,...
networks. Sexual bullying is unwanted touching, lewd gestures or jokes, and racial bullying has to do with stereotypes and discrimination
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
.
Bullying is often dismissed as a "rite of passage
Rite of passage
A rite of passage is a ritual event that marks a person's progress from one status to another. It is a universal phenomenon which can show anthropologists what social hierarchies, values and beliefs are important in specific cultures....
", but studies have shown it has negative physical and psychological effects. "Sexual minority youth, or teens that identify themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual, are bullied two to three times more than heterosexuals", and "almost all transgender students have been verbally harassed (e.g., called names or threatened in the past year at school because of their sexual orientation (89%) and gender expression (89%)", according to GLSEN's Harsh Realities, The Experiences of Transgender Youth In Our Nation’s Schools. These issues have become more mainstream in the 2000s, and even more so in the months of September and October 2010 when a series of suicides got national attention. In August 2010 the US Department of Education (DOE) hosted the first-ever National Bullying Summit. President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
has posted an "It Gets Better" video on The White House website as part of the It Gets Better Project, it became the second most-viewed video on the White House YouTube channel. First lady Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is the wife of the 44th and incumbent President of the United States, Barack Obama, and is the first African-American First Lady of the United States...
attributes bullying and harassment behaviors to the examples parents set as, in most cases, children follow their lead. In March 2011 the President and First Lady hosted the first Conference on Bullying Prevention at the White House co-sponsored by the DOE and the Department of Health and Human Services. At the same time, anti-bullying legislation
Anti-bullying legislation
-History:Forty-seven states in the United States have passed school anti-bullying legislation, the first being Georgia in 1999. The two states without anti-bullying legislation are Michigan, and Montana. A watchdog organization called Bully Police USA advocates for and reports on anti-bullying...
, called the Safe Schools Improvement Act, was introduced this week by Democratic Sen. Bob Casey
Bob Casey, Jr.
Robert Patrick "Bob" Casey, Jr. is the senior U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania and a member of the Democratic Party. He previously served as Pennsylvania Treasurer, and Pennsylvania Auditor General. He is the son of former Governor Bob Casey, Sr..He is the first Democrat elected to a full term in...
from Pennsylvania and Republican Sen. Mark Kirk
Mark Kirk
Mark Steven Kirk is the junior United States Senator from Illinois and a member of the Republican Party. Previously, Kirk was a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Illinois's 10th congressional district....
from Illinois.
"More than 34,000 people die by suicide each year," making it "the third leading cause of death among 15 to 24 year olds with lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth attempting suicide up to four times more than their heterosexual peers." In 2004, 1,985 American adolescents under the age of twenty committed suicide, an increase of 18% from the previous year. Though it is impossible to know the exact suicide rate of LGBT youth because sexuality and gender minorities are often hidden and even unknown, particularly in this age group. Further research is currently being done to explain the prevalence of suicide among LGBT youths
Suicide among LGBT youth
Researchers have found that suicide among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth is comparatively higher than among the general population...
.
The Campaign
Kevin JenningsKevin Jennings
Kevin Brett Jennings is an American educator, author, and administrator. He was the Assistant Deputy Secretary for the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools at the U.S. Department of Education from 2009-11...
, who is openly gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
and is the Assistant Deputy Secretary for the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools at the U.S. Department of Education, has experienced bullying himself at school and has dreamed of this campaign for over ten years. The campaign aims to reduce homophobic slang among youth, and educate parents and teachers on how to create a safe space for LGBT teens. GLSEN and the Ad Council have reported that over half of all students have heard homophobic remarks being made often at school, and 9 out of 10 LGBT students have been harassed at school over the last year. The campaign encourages students to get involved by starting a Gay-Straight Alliance
Gay-straight alliance
Gay–straight alliances are student organizations, found primarily in North American high schools and universities, that are intended to provide a safe and supportive environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth and their straight allies .-Goal:The goal of most, if not all,...
, educating their peers, and working to create a safer environment for LGBT students. This is the first campaign on GLBT issues since the Ad Council was founded in 1942. The campaign uses the slogan "When you say ‘That’s so gay,’ do you realize what you say? Knock it off." Previously the council has run other anti-discrimination campaigns like "A mind is a terrible thing to waste,” for the United Negro College Fund
United Negro College Fund
The United Negro College Fund is an American philanthropic organization that fundraises college tuition money for black students and general scholarship funds for 39 private historically black colleges and universities. The UNCF was incorporated on April 25, 1944 by Frederick D. Patterson , Mary...
, and "Expect the best from a girl and that’s what you’ll get" to promote gender equality
Gender equality
Gender equality is the goal of the equality of the genders, stemming from a belief in the injustice of myriad forms of gender inequality.- Concept :...
.
GLSEN spent approximately $2 million dollars to produce the campaign, which was released along with GLSEN's 2007 School Climate Survey. It includes three television public service announcement
Public service announcement
A public service announcement or public service ad is a type of advertisement featured on television, radio, print or other media...
s (PSAs), six print PSAs and three radio PSAs. The ad was the first ever campaign by the Ad Council, "which directs and coordinates public service campaigns on behalf of Madison Avenue and the media industry", to address any GLBTQ issues. The campaign was done pro bono
Pro bono
Pro bono publico is a Latin phrase generally used to describe professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment or at a reduced fee as a public service. It is common in the legal profession and is increasingly seen in marketing, technology, and strategy consulting firms...
by the New York office of Arnold Worldwide
Arnold Worldwide
Arnold Worldwide is an advertising agency headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The agency has 15 offices in 12 countries, including Amsterdam, Boston, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Melbourne, Mexico City, Milan, New York, Prague, São Paulo, Shanghai, Sydney, Toronto and Washington DC...
.
In researching the possibility that public service directors, who decide which pro bono campaigns their media outlet will run, they found only a "very small percentage" who would not run the campaign but mainly due to their audience was much older. They also tested how to deliver the messages to "tough and media savvy" kids "that speaks to young people in a tone they do not deem patronizing or condescending." Their goal became "to show the situation in a new light [...] to point out this language can be hurtful and let the kids make their own decisions."
After the first year of the campaign had been reached, the second harder-hitting phase addressing the consequences, "sometimes life-or-death", of anti-gay language was launched. The first phase focussed on showing the television PSAs to get young people to see how their language can be hurtful, the ads combined for "more than $9 million worth of media exposure for the campaign's message since its launch in October 2008." The second phase will be more viral
Viral marketing
Viral marketing, viral advertising, or marketing buzz are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses...
and enable people to embed banners and materials on websites and in their social media
Social media
The term Social Media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0,...
use. All the materials are downloadable from the campaign site. The Ad Council reports a high recognition of the television spots among teens (41% of teens aged 13-16 nationwide reporting that they have seen or heard at least one PSA) and a recent survey conducted by the Council shows "significant shifts in key attitudes and behaviors regarding the use of anti-LGBTQ slurs." Another downloadable feature is a meter that tracks the occurrence of common LGBTQ slurs such as "fag
Faggot
Faggot, fagot, faggots, or faggoting may refer to:* faggot or fagot, branch or twig, or bundle of these** Fasces** Faggot , archaic unit of measurement for bundles of sticks...
" and "dyke
Dyke (slang)
Dyke is slang terminology referring to a lesbian or lesbianism. It originated as a derogatory label for a masculine woman, and this usage still exists. However, some attempt to use it in a manner they see as positive, or simply as a neutral synonym for lesbian...
" "in real time—on the popular micro-blogging site Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
."
See also
- Day of SilenceDay of SilenceThe Day of Silence is the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network's annual day of action to protest the bullying and harassment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students and their supporters...
- Bullying
- Hate speechHate speechHate speech is, outside the law, any communication that disparages a person or a group on the basis of some characteristic such as race, color, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, or other characteristic....
- StigmaStigmaStigma is a word that originally means a "sign", "point", or "branding mark". It may refer to:-As a symbolic mark:* The Mark of Cain* Stigmata, bodily marks or wounds resembling the crucifixion wounds of Jesus...
- Verbal AbuseVerbal AbuseVerbal Abuse is a hardcore punk band, originally from Houston, Texas, but which became successful after moving to San Francisco.Verbal Abuse was started in Houston, Texas in 1981 after singer and songwriter Nicki Sicki quit the band Sick Pleasure and moved to Virginia, then back to Texas when he...
- inority Stress]