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Furthermore, as a high school teacher, I am tasked with teaching the kids not to say that something is "gay" when they think it's "lame," which in itself is denigrating disabled people. Most of my students are not homophobic, but that doesn't mean it's okay to equate something they find unappealing with a whole segment of society.
Using such terms without being conscious of their etymologies not only offends people but also makes the users sound rather ignorant (think of such terms as "invalid," "dumb," "lame," that are used to describe people who are not actually handicapped).
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