Walking through any high school hallway, students often hear a slur of words that in adult life are not acceptable to be used as insults and that are often taken offensively to the public eye. The language used could be chalked up to the difference in the language gap between the millennials (Generation Y) and older generations.

It has always been offensive to the people with disabilities or the orientations that they describe. According to Teens Against Bullying, an organization whose goal is to provide innovative resources against bullying, using the word “retarded” as an insult can be very degrading to people who have disabilities. Also, using “gay” as an insult insults  lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transexual people. Imagine someone saying, “That’s so American” as an insult. It would make people feel unwelcome. Using  the term “gay” as an insult implies that these people are unwelcome in this society and puts them down.

“Using ‘gay’ as an insult is not cool, people are people and should be treated the same,” senior Collin Curtis said. These insults used to be more of a social norm solely because it was more accepted for these words to be thrown around, but it shouldn’t be now. According to National Alliance on Mental Illness, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual, and questioning people are three times more likely than others to have mental health problems. So using phrases like, “You’re a fag” are especially damaging.  Accord to  R-Word, “intellectual disability” is replacing “mental retardation” because today “retard” is commonly used as an insult towards something the person things is stupid.  Quite frankly, if you have to resort to these as insults rather than their correct meanings it shows your inability to handle the situation you’re in as well as your inability to be in public spaces without offending a large group of people.