While I have found confidence and have learned to truly accept myself that doesn’t mean that there haven’t been several hardships that I’ve endured being a part of the community. One topic along with a handful of others I wanted to discuss is microaggressions. To explain them simply, they are words or phrases you say with possibly no intention of it being an insult to someone but regardless, it can be harmful to people around you. Many different forms of microaggressions involve race, ethnicity, sexuality, and disability. 

While there are countless inappropriate microaggressions for other topics I will only be explaining the ones in relation to LGBTQ+ given the article topic. One that is extremely common today and that has been for years now is “gay.” Yes, there are two definitions for the word but when it is used in a sentence like, 

“ugh it’s fu**ing gay that we have to do this assignment”

 It sets the mindset that anything involved with the word is bad or that it can be used as an insult to someone. It spreads a harmful mindset because for most queer individuals who are growing up and are having trouble accepting themselves feel ashamed to identify as gay because it almost sounds like a joke or an insult to themselves and overall just feels uncomfortable to say out loud because of how it’s been used around them.