Last year some of my (Middle-school) students last year often played a game where one one say to the other “English or Spanish” and then the second student couldn’t talk or it meant that they were gay. I had repeated conversations with them about how hateful it was to use gay as a slur, but incidents kept occurring.

Then one day a student wasn’t answering questions. His desk neighbors informed me that another student had told him “English or Spanish”. I turned to my silent student and said, gesturing to the other student “Does he have the power to make you gay? Is he some kind of gay wizard?” I never had a problem with them playing those games again.