Last night I was watching “Mean Girls” on MTV while cleaning. It was the scene where the girls are looking at the “burn book” and reach the page with Damian and Janice. 

As many of us know, when the girls see Damian’s picture, Lindsay Lohan’s character says, “Oh, he’s almost too gay to function.” And it’s partially true. His character is gay. The phrase is almost meant as a term of endearment by Janice, who is technically the only one allowed to say it. Still, keep in mind that she is not using “gay” in a derogatory sense. 

As the movie continues I quote along with Cady Heron, “Oh, he’s almost too gay to function.” And then I pause, because I notice something. Cady didn’t say, “He’s almost too gay to function.” She said “He’s almost too BLEEP to function.” And it dawned on me that MTV censored the word “gay.”

You read that correctly, ladies, gentlemen, whatever gender you choose: MTV censored the word gay even though it was in its proper context and was not derogatory. 

To say I was mad was an understatement. I understand bleeping out derogatory words or bleeping out curse words.

Bleeping out a word that is in no way offensive, nor was meant to be offensive, is going too far. Basically, “gay” is silenced, but “Teen Mom” is splashed across my screen every five minutes. I’m not bashing either of these — but only one of them is something you can choose.

This unnecessary censorship got me thinking about how long LGBT members have been censored, silenced and told to stay “in the closet.” 

According to a July 24 article on Polymic.com, there are still 29 states where an individual can be fired for being gay. You read correctly. In more than half of the U.S., you can be fired for loving the “wrong” person. In what world is it OK for a person to be fired from their job simply because of whom they love? 

We like to say we’re the most progressive nation in the world. We say we’re patriots, but how can we be truly progressive when we haven’t progressed past homophobia and transphobia?

How can we call ourselves patriots when so many of us want to deny two people the freedom to marry one another? 

Someday I want to live in a country where the next person coming out of the closet isn’t the biggest news of the day — it’s just another story about a person being who they truly are.

I want to live in a country where the “It Gets Better” campaign doesn’t exist because it’s already gotten better. I want to live in a world where “gay” is no longer an insult.

I want to live in a world where a channel like MTV — which gave up music videos and quality programming a long time ago — won’t censor non-offensive words.

Because Damian is too gay to function.

That’s what makes him awesome.