And tonight, on a very special Sports Center...

"Joe Alexander is so gay", my fifteen year old brother yelled as he watched the Duke/Western Virginia game on Saturday. While I knew that his comment was coming from a deep love for Coach K rather than a homophobic viewpoint, I was offended enough (having been awoken from my jetlag nap) to correct his poor choice of words.

"Absolutely not. You can absolutely not use the word gay like that, Taylor" I said as firmly as possible. This was tricky as I was also groggy and unshowered - not the epitome of an authority figure.

Perhaps sensing this, he said something like "No, Gina. You probably haven't been following the tournament, but Alexander is actually gay. I mean, he's homosexual. They did a really great piece on it before the game".

Skeptical, but undeterred, I snapped back "Well, even if he is gay... you were using it in a derogatory way, and that's not cool with me".

Both Taylor and my twelve year old brother, Connor, were in hysterics at this point and I was doubly annoyed. My brothers constantly reference my love for the crappy ESPN human interest stories, but I never thought it would come back at me like this. To add insult to injury, Connor made a bullshit reference of "gullible" being taken out of the dictionary, reminding me that sixth grade jokes never die.

By the time I returned from my therapeutic trip to the coffee shop with my mom, Western Virginia had beaten Duke, and Taylor was pretty much not speaking to anyone in our family. Alexander ended up with 22 points, and Taylor's favorite player (and I think Duke's normal leading scorer) had six. It was a great day for the LGBT community...