Hilarious NZ anti-homophobia ad goes viral
An ad discouraging the use of ‘gay’ as a pejorative has gone viral, and is already changing how some people use the word.
New Zealand LGBTI group Rainbow Youth created the ad, launched as their first ever video, Pink News has reported.
The ad shows a man, Nigel, reacting to another man dropping his food and calling the incident ‘gay’.
“It’s deeply disappointing, but it’s not gay,” Nigel says.
A third man walks by with a sheep, remarking that he himself is “quite gay”.
“If it’s not gay, it’s not gay,” the ad says.
Many people have said the ad has prompted them to talk to their kids about not calling things gay.
One person tweeted, “Already—overheard two 11-year-olds talking today. One said something was so gay, the other shot back: is it gay though? It’s working!”
Rainbow Youth said they wanted to create the ad to fight what might seem like a minor issue in homophobia.
“We chose to address something small that contributes to much larger issues—homophobia, biphobia and transphobia,” they said on Facebook.
The video has been shared on social media thousands of times already, and been watched more than 200,000 times.
SUPER stoked to share with ya'll our first national ad campaign addressing something small that contributes to much larger issues! 🌈💕 1/3 pic.twitter.com/oNxAuUEqY1
— Rainbow Youth (@RainbowYOUTH) October 2, 2017
Some years ago Seinfeld actor Jason Alexander gave quite an eloquent apology after he used the adjective ‘gay’ during a tv interview to describe, I’m pretty sure, the game cricket (he was comparing it to rugby, he’d just returned from visiting Australia).
https://www.glaad.org/blog/actor-jason-alexander-apologizes-jokes-made-cbs-late-late-show
I think the word is gradually being used less, but I could be wrong.