When and How Can We Still Use The Word “Gay?” Watch This Funny Video Cheat Sheet.

Today’s world of sexuality and gender identities can be really tough to navigate through. We’ve seen questions arise from the families of participants in our program and we even brought in experts from the LGBTQ center here in Los Angeles to train our staff on basic etiquette for those who are transitioning and questioning their own identities.

Learning how to communicate with a loved one who is struggling with their own gender or sexual identity can be difficult to do without sounding descending condescending or overly sensitive. There’s also a real danger of feeling overwhelmed by this new set of rules that we’ve assigned to ourselves as a society to try to protect people while they’re navigating through this personal journey of theirs.

In order to keep things both light and informative we’d like to share this video we found on when it is and isn’t appropriate to use the word “gay.”

While we feel like it should be plain old common sense to not use it in the pejorative sense, there’s no doubt that it’s become part of the natural speaking vocabulary for some people (especially teens) and if we’re going to grow as a society we have to start being more conscious about the words we chose to use in our every-day language.

While going through a gender or sexual identity crisis can be hard enough on anybody, can you imagine what it must be like to struggle through this maze while also dealing with borderline personality disorder? At our OPI Intensive we’ve had the pleasure of having several beautiful people in all stages of their gender identity journey and know that it can be a sensitive issue to talk about. While we don’t pretend to have all the answers on how to navigate through this complex world we want to be part of the conversation in making sure people going on this journey feel supported and loved for each step of the way.

We hope you enjoy the video as much as we did and if you or a loved one is struggling with their own journey of gender or sexual identity please know that there are plenty of resources out there, like our own program, that are here to help. There’s no excuse for people to have to suffer in silence anymore.