Quote (originally posted by
Rizen):
I'm not gay but have a question: how do you respond to someone saying something like "Meta Knight plays super gay", used in a derogatory way?
Bring it up right when you hear it. "Can you please not say that?" is sufficient. I've had a friend stop me dead when I was joking about some rape joke, or another time when I used "retarded" in some derogatory way (we were playing pool or something and I was losing. :v). If that someone respects you, he'll stop eventually. It make take a few times though, since it takes a while to eliminate "natural" words in our vocabulary.
If you ever studied psychology, it's basically a simple Operant conditioning strategy. Even though it doesn't fit the connotation of the word, you're effectively "punishing" the behavior (using "gay derogatorily) every time you bring up that he shouldn't say it. Makes things awkward.
If you're still having trouble, it's probably because other people around you are also doing it. Work on correcting one person at a time. When people see that other people around them aren't doing that behavior, they'll eventually cease themselves.
/psych major