Take a minute and think about these possible scenarios.

Scenario 1: You and your friends are trying to come back from a particularly bad night Downtown. One of your friends lost money, the other is vomiting and you have to deal with him and the fact that the girl you like turned you down. You’re trying to get a cab, but no one’s stopping for you. In this situation, one might say, “That’s so gay!”

Scenario 2: You and your girlfriends have a favorite dessert at your local diner. You’ve been going to this diner for years and you get it every single time you go. One day you go to your beloved diner and you find out they stopped serving your dessert. In this situation, one might say, “That’s so gay!”

Scenario 3: You’re at home for Thanksgiving break. You haven’t seen your best friends in months. Everyone’s having a big party on Saturday. You’ve been looking forward to it for weeks, but when you tell your parents you’re going they say that you have to go to your grandmother’s instead. In this situation, one might say, “That’s so gay!”

But none of those scenarios, or the thousands of other possible scenarios, are actually the least bit homosexual. Maybe if the two friends in the first situation started making out, the phrase would make sense. (It would also be pretty gross … who makes out with someone who just threw up?)

So why is this phrase so universal in our vernacular?

“I seriously hate [the phrase],” Max Rosenberg, a junior Spanish major said. “When my friends say it, I’ll yell at them and correct them. I think it’s a stupid phrase. Sometimes people say that ‘well everyone says it,’ and they think that makes it OK.”

Rosenberg said he doesn’t use the phrase, nor do his good friends.

“I don’t see why [anybody] should have to, either,” he said.

In 2002, a high school freshman girl in Santa Rosa, Cali., was reprimanded for using the phrase. Her parents then sued the school for violating her First Amendment right to freedom of speech when they disciplined her for uttering a phrase “which enjoys widespread currency in youth culture.” The student eventually lost the case which begs the question, was she stating a homophobic slur or was she merely buying into an ignorant phrase used by many who don’t think about its repercussions?

Matthew Stichinsky, a sophomore philosophy, politics and law major, said he thinks most people don’t intend the phrase to be offensive to others.

“Honestly, I usually know most people don’t mean it offensively towards gay people,” he said.

Still, in this politically correct day and age, with popular shows like “Will and Grace” and movies like “Brokeback Mountain,” you’d think America would be more tolerant of homosexuals.

According to the FBI Hate Crime Statistics, in 2006, 15.5 percent of hate crimes were based in sexual-orientation.

The Day of Silence is an annual protest of the harassment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students and supporters. The protest combats anti-gay slurs and speech, i.e. the use of phrases like “that’s so gay” and others.

However, not all people feel the phrase is homophobic.

“Personally, I don’t have a problem with the phrase. I use it all the time. I feel like people take it way too seriously,” said a freshman who identifies himself as a homosexual but would prefer to remain anonymous.

Allegedly, we’re so “gay-friendly” and “politically correct” in the 21st century, but the excessive use of this phrase in every day language begs to differ. Or does it? Though the phrase uses the term “gay,” are people actively degrading homosexuals? And even if they don’t mean it, are they degrading them anyway?

“I think it’s a really ignorant phrase that’s used way too often,” said Jillian Gruber, a freshman human development major.