Language Games

I often get odd looks from my kids when they make a comment and I say that I will not accept any sort of bullying in my classroom. The response is a blank look and then...'bullying????' and I say, victimisation is a form of bullying and choosing a person's name to make a cheap joke, or put yourself in the centre of attention is bullying. I'm really strict about it, I can't stand anyone in my class being belittled, even if it wasn't intentional. So I just opened this article to read about the government's suggestions on homophobia within schools. I'm not arguing against the article or the fact that it is something both staff and students should be aware of. But there was a comment on it that I didn't really agree with. They compared calling someone gay, to saying 'those trainers are gay' as homophobic bullying. I disagree. The word gay is one of those that has changed meanings over the years. It began as a term for being happy, and then became a term for a homosexual person (usually male). Over the last few years it's become more a derogative term for something that's a bit rubbish.
I'm not denying that the change in usage could have come about through homophobic attitudes but the usage in society today of something being 'gay', particularly by kids, I don't believe is anything to do with the sexuality of someone but is just a slang term. I'm as guilty as the next cuprit for using it, it was a common term in Durham that just became natural to use. The job of the teacher therefore is to stop students using slang words generally and to accentuate their use of the English language. By doing this in the first place it's eliminating more possibilities of offending someone.
I guess what I'm trying to say, is that for me, some trainers being gay is not a form of homophobic bullying but simply a use of colloquial terminology that could perhaps be bullying someone because of what they wear rather than ever considering their sexuality for it. Maybe I'm wrong, and because the word doesn't offend me I don't expect it to others, but I think we're so keen to define things sometimes, we forget that we're all just in a language game in the end anyway built on associations and experiences.