Anti-homophobia campaign makes use of high school stereotypes

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A US campaign against homophobia is attempting to combat negative use of the word ‘gay’ by replacing it with high school stereotypes.

The posters, part of the ‘Think B4 You Speak’ campaign by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, replace ‘gay’ with stereotypes of jocks, cheerleaders and nerds.

All show an image of a student with text such as “That’s so ‘jock who can complete a pass but not a sentence’.”

The other two posters read: “That’s so ‘cheerleader who like, can’t, like, say smart stuff'” and “That’s so ‘gamer guy who has more videogames than friends’.”

They are followed by the line: “Think that’s mean? How do you think ‘that’s so gay’ sounds? Hurtful. So knock it off.”

However, they have been criticised by some in the gaming community as being hypocritical and patronising.

Dustin Triplett, a writer for Examiner.com, said: “The campaign has three posters targeting cheerleader, jock, and a gamer stereotypes. Yeah, because we all know fighting stereotypes with stereotypes is the best choice of action. This campaign is idiotic. Insulting others because you get insulted never leads to any good. At most, it makes things worse.”

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