NEW VOCABULARY

You’re gay. You’re retarded. Seems a little harsh, doesn’t it? Yet, people this these words don’t seem like a big deal, but actually are.

Whether you want to believe it or not, words like this have a greater impact than intended. You may think there’s nothing wrong with saying them, but there is.

Think about those people who may have a relative who is mentally ill or homosexual, because they will not think what you say is funny.

It may be hard to break these habits, but it needs to be done. With over 450,000 words in the Webster’s Dictionary to choose from, you can surely find a word that will easily replace “stupid” or “dumb”.

As a result of using these words, you unconsciously associate a negative meaning with them when there is nothing wrong with a person being gay or having special needs. Yet, by saying “that’s retarded” or “that’s gay” it makes it appear so.

There are about 57.7 million people in the United States who have a mental disorder, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Compared to that number, there are about four million people in the U.S. who are homosexual according to the Huffington Post. Together, that’s about 61.7 million lives you’re impacting when you use those words loosely. In fact, it’s more lives when you include all the people who know and care about those people.

So it’s time to broaden your vocabulary to encompass more appropriate words because using words such as “retarded” and “gay” show that you lack respect for others and therefore make others lack respect for you.