Creighton University’s Gay Straight Alliance began its Speaking Intelligently Campaign with hopes of bringing awareness to commonly accepted language that may not be so accepting of others. The Gay Straight Alliance put up posters around the Creighton Campus to get students’ and faculty’s attention.
“Education is our big thing with this campaign,” Sarah Jane Pennella, a senior Psychology major and president of Gay Straight Alliance, said. “We have forty posters that we put up in the residence halls and the science buildings.”
The Gay Straight Alliance is looking to combat the usage of phrases like ‘that is so gay’ and ‘that is retarded’ to mean ‘that is so stupid’.
“There are a lot of phrases used inappropriately: ‘that is ghetto’, ‘that is so gay’, ‘you throw like a girl’, ‘that is retarded’,” Andrew Bakke, a junior Political Science major and the Gay Straight Alliance’s vice president for student involvement, said. “It does not create a good learning environment when a certain group feels ostracized by the language of others. It can feel like a personal attack, and can even put a damper on your class or day.”
The posters are completely blank except for the word ‘Actually’ printed in bold red letters. Members of the Gay Straight Alliance then handwrote ‘that is not so gay’ or ‘that is not retarded’ underneath.
“The idea is that there is a lot of white space, and that they are really simple,” Bakke said. “The handwritten parts make it seem like everyone’s peers are speaking to them personally.”
“There is a personal affect to these posters. Students on your campus wrote these. It will make people think and will raise awareness at the same time,” Pennella said.
Some of the posters have been vandalized. One poster that was vandalized was written on in the white space. It said: “Actually, it is so gay.” A poster in the Kiewit residence hall was written on and erased three times before someone took it down.
“The vandalism has not really been a big problem,” said Milana Jordan, a freshman Journalism major. “The Gay Straight Alliance will just take the poster down and collect the vandalized ones.”
The Gay Straight Alliance plans to take the vandalized posters and put them together to show people that there really is a need for change.
“It shows that Creighton really does need the Gay Straight Alliance, and that some people really still do not act acceptingly towards all people,” Jordan said.
Some un-vandalized posters in the science buildings have also been taken down.
“We do not know who is taking these posters down,” Pennella said. “It may be faculty who just do not know about the campaign, or it could be students who are trying to be funny.”
The Gay Straight Alliance is working closely with other Creighton organizations like Peer Education at Creighton (PEAC) to put up more posters that get the message out.
“The take away message for the Speaking Intelligently Campaign is that people should think about what they say,” Pennella said. “It could offend someone.”