Using “gay” as an insult should never be tolerated

A Tumblr user wrote today:

this is like when the lgbt community gets really, really angry about the word ‘gay’. Is it privileged and bigoted? Yes. Are you really getting anything done by yelling at straight people (and gay people) that use the word? No. You are just pissing people off and turning them off your cause, even the people that should, by all rights, be PART of your cause.

The use of “gay” as an insult is an issue that’s important enough to take a stand on even if it does cost us potential allies. When we tell people that it’s hurtful and harmful for them to use the very word we’re named as a synonym for anything and everything that’s negative and dislikable, that is a matter of basic respect. It is probably about as basic as this can possibly get: don’t use who we are to mean something bad. Taking a minority group’s name for your own use as an all-occasions pejorative is not merely disrespectful – it’s just about the most obvious way that you can tell us, “WE THINK WHAT YOU ARE IS BAD.”

If that isn’t what you mean to convey, then you need to stop using language in such a way that you openly associate the very names of minorities with everything you dislike. This goes beyond merely implying that gay people are bad. It’s tantamount to stating it outright. Is it okay to say that someone “Jewed” you out of something? Or that something that isn’t working must be “n*****-rigged”? Would any amount of “I didn’t mean it like that” rationalization make that alright? No one should ever think this is acceptable, yet so many people are under the impression that it’s a-okay to do this to gay people. Why? Because it’s a more recent development in language? Because social disapproval of this usage isn’t widespread enough yet? Because they just really like using the word? It doesn’t matter. It’s not okay.

If being asked to stop using our identity as an insult is all it takes to alienate potential allies, let me make it very clear that I do not care. I do not intend to sacrifice my own self-respect just to gain the support of people who can’t even bring themselves to listen to us and respect us in this most basic and minimal way. Are those the allies we want? Can they even be called allies in any meaningful sense?

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Using “gay” as an insult should never be tolerated
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52 thoughts on “Using “gay” as an insult should never be tolerated

  1. 2

    “Don’t criticize me cuz that upsets me! And then I won’t support your cause, cuz you know fuck justice, everything’s about meee and my feelings!”

  2. 3

    I’m of the opinion that they’re just words. Yes, they mean something in society. Yes, words like “cunt” and racial slurs carry a certain amount of social gravitas.

    But should it really be that way? Should we be made a social pariah for forming certain phonemes with our mouths? I don’t really get it. The word “fuck” doesn’t inherently have any worse of a meaning than “have intercourse” or any number of more socially-acceptable slang terms for when something doesn’t go your way.

    I see it as an asinine argument.

    Granted, there are always people who will attempt to use foul language as an insult or offense. I never take that offense; it doesn’t bother me in the slightest because as I said, it’s just a word and it doesn’t mean anything negative to me.

    1. 3.1

      Literally anything anyone ever says can similarly be reduced to “just words” and dismissed as being of no consequence. But this fails to capture the essence of the problem. Maybe the error with this line of reasoning becomes a little more obvious when we describe saying “I think members of minority group X are inherently inferior”, or “all X should be rounded up and shot”, or “I am going to kill you” as being just words. Of course they are words, just like anything else we might say. But the level that you’re addressing them on – “forming certain phonemes with our mouths” – is not the relevant level here. Yes, meanings are arbitrarily linked to certain words and sounds and could just as easily be shuffled and re-mapped. This does not have any bearing on the actual problem here. The problem is the information content such expressions convey: namely, the idea that one need not listen or show any respect whatsoever when members of a minority ask you to stop using their name as an insult. That is the core issue, not “forming certain phonemes with our mouths”.

    2. 3.2

      It does make a difference. It makes a huge difference. When people use gay as a pejorative it hurts people. From the person who is hiding who they are because they fear being ostracized by those who think gay is the definition for bad or wrong. To the children who get taught that gay is a bad thing by association.

      I really fucking hate that “words don’t mean anything” bullshit. It is exactly the tact used by those wishing to marginalized a minority group. You seriously need to reconsider your statement.

    3. 3.3

      I can kind of understand where you’re coming from. I live in Scotland, and the word “cunt” is used a lot in slang over here. It doesn’t seem to carry any of the negative, misogynistic connotations that it seems to in the States, though. For the most part it functions as a casual descriptor for men, sometimes even as a term of endearment, which I know sounds odd. But it’s not unusual to hear someone say, “I was standing at the bar yesterday and some cunt bought me a drink for free – how nice was that?” or “Matthew’s girlfriend broke up with him yesterday. He’s distraught. Poor wee cunt.”

      But while words themselves can seem innocent enough, that can quickly change depending on context and intention. That’s why it’s so important to eradicate any association between the word “gay” and any sense of negativity. If you call something “gay” when you mean that it’s “bad” then you’re just perpetuating the notion that to be gay is bad. What kind of effect does hearing that word used everyday in a negative context have on a teenager who is already struggling with the notion of coming out? It’s nice to have a thick skin about these things, but I really don’t see how these people can justify using the word as a catch-all for everything that’s shit and expect the dirt not to stick. It’s wilful ignorance.

      1. I’ll bet you anything that these guys using “cunt” as a term of endearment will turn around and also use it as a perjorative when they are angry. Personally, I think it’s context that matters most. If someone uses “cunt” as a gendered insult, then yes- I’m offended. But my UK friends using it otherwise doesn’t bother me a bit.

        It’s the same with “gay”. If someone homophobic is using it, I’ll be offended. Otherwise, I really don’t care. I don’t personally use it because I was not around when that slang came into vogue, but it honestly doesn’t bother me when someone else uses it.

        1. The use of a term, that is a label for a group of people, as anything other than as a label for that group of people is an attempt to associate the new use with that group.

          Every time someone uses gay as a term meaning negative it is an attempt to marginalize people. The intention of marginalization is not required for it to do so.

          So just stop it.

      2. The thing is, words do not exist in isolation. There is always a speaker, and there is always an audience. Those parties exert an influence on the meaning of the words.

        While a word might be innocuous enough when used in one context in front of one audience, it might be considered quite offensive by a different audience. For instance, a television engineer might conceivably say “Your line output tranny’s shot!” without intending any harm to the trans* community — they would be referring to a line output transformer, not a transsexual or transvestite.

        Still, if someone did feel offended by this usage, they would be well within their rights to say so and ask them not to use that word. And then not at least to try to do so would be just plain disrespectful to them, never mind potentially transphobic.

        1. That’s daft. It really is. Your ‘tranny’ example, I mean; the ‘gay’ thing is a wholly different kettle of fish because the derogatory weight of the term derives specifically from prejudicial perceptions of homosexuals. But in your example, ‘tranny’ is a totally different bloody word – it’s like saying that biologists shouldn’t use the term ‘faggot cell’. Well, maybe you’d argue that. But if so, you’d be being damn silly: and in the ‘tranny’ case even more so, since there’s not even a tenuous and long-distant etymological link between the two.

          I know what it’s exactly like: it’s like that silly fuck who famously kicked up a stink abour someone using the word ‘niggardly’.

          Well, obviously anyone can ask anyone else not to use a word. But your hypothetical sparky would be perfectly justified in laughing in your hypothertical trasgendered person’s face.

          1. The context of something does matter as you say; if the word “faggot cell” is automatically understood to be a scientific reference, and nobody ever makes a joking connection to the homophobic insult, great. But the actual etymology of a word is not enough to produce such a nice context; only its usage matters.

            “Tr***y” is a VERY strong slur, and if it makes someone feel uncomfortable, particularly a trans woman, she has a right to say so. And if someone thinks they really need to use the word anyway, they may argue, but even if they think it’s silly, to “laugh in the face” of someone they’ve offended would be an act of cruelty. The fact that they think someone is silly, or can’t empathize with her, can never be a justification for that.

            Finally, a couple issues with the tone of this comment: first, you chose to describe a transgender person as “hypothetical” when you meant that the situation was hypothetical. This is an illogical and potentially harmful move. Also, when you are addressing someone making an argument about a word being offensive, it is HIGHLY inappropriate to call them “daft”. Get some empathy for fuck’s sake.

    4. 3.4

      You are missing the entire issue here. ‘Gay’ is not intrinsically an offensive word. Nobody is claiming that it is. It originally meant ‘happy and joyful’ and in the ’70s became co-opted by the homosexual community to refer to themselves. I proudly call myself gay because I am.

      Using it as an general insult is based on that already established meaning. Use in that way assumes that being gay is bad, and insulting. Personally I find it more offensive for gay to be used that way than for somebody to call me a faggot.

    5. 3.5

      I’d buy this if suddenly people started using words like “tea-pot” or “ankle socks” as perjoratives. But for some reason, it’s only already-marginalized groups that get chosen to have their names associated with negative things.

      As a gay man, I get to say what is offensive to me, and using gay is, and I will challenge you and I will be a major intolerant jerk about it. If it really -is- just a random assembling of phonemes, then please do not use a random assembling of phonemes that happens to correspond with phonemes that describe me.

  3. 4

    I’ve brought this up with some people I know before and they’ve sort of accepted the argument that using gay in this way is wrong, but have continued to do so. I’m going to have to really make a point of calling this out more.

  4. 5

    I’m also a Scot and have a rather different slant on it. Vera Lynn was gay, we have gay days, but call me gay and I’m likely to smack you in the face. What a *ridiculous* appendage it is.
    Queer had something going for it. Queer as Fuck was almost likeable. “Gay” makes you sound like a cunt.
    Let’s face it, if you live your life hanging on your “alternative sexuality” or particular fetish. Hanging on it or hanging it out, you have already lost the plot. Look in the mirror and get some self respect. Do hetero people define themselves mainly by their sexuality? no of course not. That’s why they look at you as if you’re a window licking mong. If all you have to define you is your sexual preferences you are a sad empty husk. Get the fuck out, get some interests, an education, a career, buy a motorcycle and get a fucking personality.
    Gay, marriage, gold bands, 2.2 children, mortgages, Ford family car, Gay Pride marches, semi detached heaven, indignation, placards, cruise holidays? you might prefer someone of the same sex but you are still a pathetic middle class cunt.

    1. 5.1

      Of course herto people define themselves mostly by their sexuality. Many of them obsess over it to a degree that makes marchers in a gay pride parade look restrained.

      That’s why so many people react violently to being called gay, their identity is so bound up in being a heterosexual that they feel threatened.

    2. 5.4

      Congratulations, your assholishness is only rivalled by your cluelessness.

      Yeah, I mean, why focus on that part of your identity that might actually get you killed if you run into the wrong kind of people. Why bother fighting for equal human dignity when you can as well buy a minivan?

    3. 5.5

      stewie:

      I’m also a Scot and have a rather different slant on it.

      A different slant on what? The use of ‘gay’ as a perjorative? It’s blatantly obvious that you’re not gay (unless you have a wicked case of self hatred), so how exactly do you have a different opinion of what it means to be gay, and the stripping of humanity that gays feel when the term ‘gay’ is used as an insult? You haven’t lived as a gay person. Which means, among many, many other things:
      -You haven’t been denied a job due to your sexuality
      -You haven’t been denied a home because of your sexuality
      -You haven’t had your life threatened by your parents because of your sexuality.
      -Your friends, family and coworkers haven’t made you a pariah because you’re gay.
      -You haven’t been rejected by your church and ostracized from your community for being gay.
      -You haven’t been forced to live on the street because you’re gay.
      -YOU MOST CERTAINLY HAVE NOT HAD THE LIFE BEATEN OUT OF YOU BECAUSE YOU’RE GAY.
      STFU with your different ‘slant’ on how it feels to be a marginalized member of society. Instead of running your mouth and showing everyone how much you think like Pat Robertson, go learn what it means to be a compassionate human being.

      Vera Lynn was gay, we have gay days, but call me gay and I’m likely to smack you in the face. What a *ridiculous* appendage it is.

      Did you have something remotely close to a point here? Aside from showing how much more of a bigot you are than anyone thought.

      Queer had something going for it. Queer as Fuck was almost likeable. “Gay” makes you sound like a cunt.

      Oh, great, the moron who knows nothing about being physically assaulted due to one’s sexuality would like to chime in with xe’s preferred terminology.
      Newsflash: We don’t care if you like the word ‘queer’, or ‘gay’. We don’t care if you like ‘Queer As Fuck’.
      I DO care about using the word C**T. Great. So you’re a moron who’s privileged, bigoted and misogynistic. What the hell is wrong with you? Go educate yourself on gendered insults before you run off at the mouth with your unsolicited and uninformed opinion:

      1. Female gendered insults remind women that traditionally their role is to provide sex and offspring to males. They portray “woman” and “vagina” as interchangeable, and the global culture right now is one with high sexual objectification of women and very low political agency of women. Calling a woman a “cunt” or “twat” or “bitch” reduces her to the parts of her body that men have found useful throughout the millennia. Calling a woman a “vagina” may be more scientific or polite, but it accomplishes the same thing. Calling a man by these terms is an insult to women because it acknowledges the power differential; it insults him by putting him in the lower class and insults women by labeling them the lower class.http://morewomeninskepticism.wordpress.com/2011/08/09/27-gendered-insults/

      Hope that helps cupcake.

      Let’s face it, if you live your life hanging on your “alternative sexuality” or particular fetish. Hanging on it or hanging it out, you have already lost the plot.

      Let’s face what?
      Also, what is this alternative sexuality you’re talking about?
      I’m gay.
      I didn’t choose it.
      There’s no benefit to “turning gay”.
      There’s no loss of responsibilities.
      There are no wild orgies with all sexual responsibility thrown to the wind.
      There’s no private club with exclusive benefits.
      Instead, what we get from people like you is attempts to diminish our humanity by:
      Denying us the right to marry
      Denying us the right to adopt children
      Denying us the right to visit our SO in hospitals
      Gay and faggot used as slurs have the effect of treating us like we’re abnormal or inferior.
      You’d punch someone for calling you gay? So tell me, what’s wrong with being gay? Why don’t you like it? Did you try it out? Did you just not meet the right person? Was it just a phase? Were you rebelling against authority? (please note, these are all variations on insultingquestions I’ve heard heterosexuals ask gay men or women)
      Newsflash:
      You’re not better than anyone. You’ll never be. But keep on trying to be just like the abominable, vile god of the Bible.

    4. 5.6

      I am a person first. But could you please kindly explain that to the people who gay bashed me a couple of years ago after a Pride event? Because they’re the ones who seem to be kind of stuck on my sexual identity.

  5. 7

    I had exactly this fight with a relative of mine who was a year younger. It lasted three years mainly because I was young and oblivious too and didn’t realize that it’s easier to make an analogy than it is to try to explain something completely outside someone else’s realm of experience. When I finally hit on “Substitute ‘girly’ for ‘gay’ and tell me if it would still be okay,” she came around.

  6. 8

    Not to suggest I don’t take this seriously….

    http://youtu.be/mirwAmdGZmY

    And yes, I agree with the argument.

    If a person doesn’t like something, stick with “inane”, “puerile”, “juvenile”, “imbecilic”, “pointless”. Perhaps the reason some people resort to “gay” as an insult is because the other words are too difficult for them.

  7. 9

    It’s sadly always the same discussion. I mean, when I read the OP I thought “just like when we try people they should not use cunt” and immediately the people show up defending the use of both of them.

    Here’s a question for you:
    What do you lose by refraining from using them?
    Is your vocabulary so pathetic that you lack sufficient swearwords and insults?
    Here’s the deal: you stop using it. You don’t lose a thing. We gain lots. And you can even feel good about it.
    See, win-win!

    1. 9.1

      What does one lose? One loses the ability to malign a particular gender or sexuality, something that’s obviously dear to those threatened by the loss of privilege. I don’t think it’s an irrational argument so much as it’s a disingenuous one: the people using the words (largely) understand perfectly well that they’re homophobic or misogynist, even if it’s just intuitively, and it’s the loss of a linguistic reinforcement of cultural privilege to which they’re really objecting. (I view this similarly to when one challenges a public institution using institutionalized prayer and those backing/performing the prayer claim it isn’t one: if it’s not a prayer, why the objection to eliminating it or replacing it with something that sounds like a prayer in neither content nor form? Answer: it really is a prayer and the objection is to not being able to institutionalize one’s religion, to losing privilege.)

      The problem with trying to present this as a win-win is the uncritical assumption that people are arguing in good faith, and not defensively rationalizing the perpetuation of privilege.

  8. 10

    I hate the use of ‘gay’ as a (not-deliberately-homophobic) insult.

    I do accept that for some users the insult and the use of the word for homosexuals have become distinct. But – and it’s a big but – users should be sensitive to their audience. Only if all people hearing the word share the same understanding is it communicative (and you don’t have to be homosexual to find derogatory uses of ‘gay’ offensive).

    As a somewhat parallell example… I’m a habitual user of the word ‘cunt’ as a swearword that has become (depending on context) disengaged from its actual meaning (like ‘fuck’). But most users of my language do not have the same understanding of it as I do, so I have to be aware of whether the people in whose company I find myself share my interpretation or not. Not because I feel I ought to be PC, but because I want my language use to be communicative: I don’t want what I say (and what I think) to be misconstrued.

    Just so, people who use ‘gay’ in this way (and who do not use it with homophobic implictions) should listen to the objections. Not because they are failing to be appropriately PC, but because they are failing in communication.

  9. 11

    Unfortunately it’s pretty much out of your or anyone else’s hands. Nobody can own a word or prescribe the way a word is to be used in English – that’s not how the English language works. The meanings of words evolve over time.

    My teenage kids and all of their friends use ‘gay’ to mean ‘lame’, or ‘disappointing’. We live in Australia, and this is simply how the word is changing here and probably most other places. It’s taking on another meaning, which may or may not coexist with the current one, depending on popular usage.

    I don’t know what gay people can do about this. I suspect it’s just bad luck and another word will have to be found or will evolve.

    1. 11.1

      Unfortunately it’s pretty much out of your or anyone else’s hands. Nobody can own a word or prescribe the way a word is to be used in English – that’s not how the English language works. The meanings of words evolve over time.

      No, but you can raise awareness.
      You can talk to your kids, ask them if they care about equality, ask them if it would really cost them too much to use a different word, because this one really hurts people.
      Is that asked too much?

    2. 11.2

      It’s not bad luck. The word came to mean that as a direct insult to the existance of gay people. It is not intuitive to think that they chose that word to use as a insult out of thin air

    3. 11.3

      Oh, no, no one means to insult any actual gay people. It’s just that the magical diction fairies changed what the word means! No actual human ever had any harmful intent at all!

      m-/

      1. It’s even more: Intent doesn’t matter. Intent isn’t magic. Those kids might not mean to harm gay people, but they do and the only sensible response a decent human being can have to this is to say “sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you, I’ll stop”.
        Because, and I’ll say it again, you don’t lose anything by not using a handfull of words.

        1. That’s true of course, but it shouldn’t be allowed to erase situations in which hostile intent actually does exist. I find true hostility to be morally worse than thoughtlessly supporting a discriminatory status quo. Using “gay” to mean “disappointing” or whatever began, I don’t doubt, out of real malice, and I think that if you could read the minds of the people using it, intent not to harm gay people would be pretty rare. It’s not like that usage is some kind of automatic privilege one can receive without wanting to, like higher pay for men. It’s a word, you make a decision to use it or not.

    4. Cal
      11.4

      I live in Australia too, and when I was a high school teacher I heard a lot of teenagers using the word ‘gay’ just as you describe. A lot of teachers thought it was one battle too many to fight. I preferred to tell them why it was offensive and harmful and ban the use of it in my classroom, because I had to consider that there might be queer students in the room and, on top of all other considerations of common decency and humanity, every time that word was used that way it hurt them. Same when a student told a racist joke in the classroom, because common decency and humanity + indigenous, Fijian and North African students in the room to be harmed. Same when kids made sexist comments – hello, plenty of girls in the room, plus I object to being classified as subhuman by the thirteen-year-olds I’m teaching – or bullied each other. I don’t know if it made much of a difference outside my classroom, but it made a difference inside it, and it made a few students that I know of think more carefully about what they were *really* saying when they said certain words. As an educator, I consider that a success.

      Language doesn’t ‘just change’ like a tide and those of us who object to certain usages aren’t a bunch of King Cnuts unable to stop it. We change it by refusing to be swept along with the tide, and thus the world becomes a better place.

  10. 12

    I can’t believe there are people actually defending this.

    You know, I’ve heard plenty of kids use “gay” as an insult / general negative descriptor. I have never once heard a kid express confusion when I told him to cut it out, as though he didn’t know what he’d done wrong. The people who are actually performing this usage – twelve and fourteen-year-olds, pretty much the furthest thing in the world from experts in diversity studies – know that it’s offensive. It boggles me that the grownups are sitting around trying to pretend it’s not.

  11. 13

    That “it’s just a word” bullshit was what colored my perceptions for entirely too much of my life. I brushed off and ignored human beings who deserved far, far better because of the negative connotations of a word and I will forever regret having done so. It wasn’t until the open-minded atmosphere of college where I met most of my present group of friends that I left those poisonous attitudes behind, but when I think of what kind of person I was it makes me sick. One of my high school classmates actually came out to me… I pretended it never happened, because of the social consequences of admitting association with the word itself.

    Words absolutely have meaning. Different words have different meanings to different people, but to ignore the effect that particular words have in particular contexts is folly. The entire purpose of language is to convey meaning. The only way to eliminate the negative meanings of a word is to stop using it in negative contexts. It fucking well does have an effect on the people who hear it, especially if they are young and particularly susceptible to peer pressure.

    I wish I could take back the way I acted during middle school and high school. I would have slapped myself every time I used ‘gay’ in a negative way. It hurt people who didn’t deserve it, but all I could think of was to disassociate myself from the word because I was afraid that I would be tied to it. The ‘sticks and stones’ folks don’t have the slightest idea what they’re saying. We wouldn’t use words if they didn’t have meaning.

    The way we use words is every bit as important as what words we use, and while it is not possible (nor desirable) to prevent everyone from being offended by everything we say or write, it is certainly possible to avoid saying or writing in ways that we know for a fact will be harmfully offensive. We should all be better than that.

  12. 14

    This is pretty well what turned me off Louis CK. I’d seen a thing of his on being white that was pretty good, and then watched his bit on the word “faggot”. Turned me right off.

    I think people here talking about how “oh, it’s language usage, you can’t change that” haven’t actually looked at your examples.

  13. 15

    The use of certain terms as insults is, as has been pointed out, wrong because it reinforces unfair negative associations. There’s another problem that I didn’t see mentioned, namely that the term used rarely if ever has anything to do with whatever is actually being insulted. Not only is a large group of people who have no connection with the thing in question insulted indirectly, but the reader doesn’t actually know why the writer wants to condemn something. It makes the writer seem ignorant and bigoted and to whatever extent there’s a point it’s lost. Why anyone would want to create that impression is beyond me.

  14. 16

    I agree completely with this post. For those who are having trouble, perhaps a few examples of substitutions will make the point clearer. What happens when we switch “gay” for the preferred group name of some other group? Given how much the MRA crowd flips out at the slightest suggestion that some men do bad things or that men as a group are socialized/coerced to antisocial modes of behavior, imagine the furor if we started calling things “male” in the same sense as “gay”, as a general pejorative. “That party was totally male.” “That’s such a male song.” “That’s a really male outfit.” Pick a group to which you belong, and imagine hearing it every day. Can you see why the equation of one of your primary identities with general badness might be problematic?

    Seriously, just stop using “gay” as a pejorative. It’s not that difficult – one has so many other options from which to choose (options that, to be fair, are often varying degrees of problematic in their own ways; however, I think “suck” has pretty much lost all of its anti-sodomy and homophobic connotations that it can easily be substituted without furthering marginalization – anyone have a different take on that?).

    1. 16.1

      Not quite, but almost and I like to have fun with it.
      If anybody ever tells me ‘you suck’. My response is ‘Yes, and I’ve been told I’m quite good at it, thank you very much’.

      It’s so much fun to watch them react to that response.

  15. 17

    Most of my problem is with this part of the argument:You are just pissing people off and turning them off your cause, even the people that should, by all rights, be PART of your cause.
    I mean, “stop complaining or we won’t support you” isn’t really a sign of being an ally, now is it?

    1. 17.1

      Exactly, Deen. I visualize the “Then I’ll take my ball and go home!” idiocy of childhood.

      I’m hoping the FTB iteration of Zinnia Jones rises to amazing levels. With YouTube videos, I’ve stood over my son and his laptop a few times after saying “Watch this!” I’d won the “That’s so gay” fight with the advantage of outraged motherhood (and I’m happy that it wasn’t that hard to get through to him), but the clarity of argument without the motherhood advantage is excellent.

  16. 18

    It is used as an insult because the majority of straight men do not want to be identified as being gay. Don’t you get it? Because you dont want it used that way, because you write articles about it, because you and other homosexuals complain and campaign against its misuse, it is used that way.

    Plus it is already pretty deeply-rooted in society already. try taking the word ‘fuck’ away and see what happens. same thing. Those who use it in the way you dont want it used know this, so they will continue to use it and laugh as they do.

    1. 18.1

      Because you dont want it used that way, because you write articles about it, because you and other homosexuals complain and campaign against its misuse, it is used that way.

      I guess someone missed The Direction of Time 101.

  17. 21

    Not to be a jerk, but why is it OK to say “Jewed”, yet you can’t bring yourself to say nigger-rigged? If both are perjoratives (and I believe they are), then why do you show one word more deference?

  18. 22

    The word “gay” has had the independent meaning of icky since around 1700. When people say that’s gay as in those shoes are “gay”–meaning I don’t like those shoes, this in no way relates to homosexuality. By contrast Jew has only one meaning and when someone uses Jew they necessarily reference the religion. There seems to be a campaign to get rid of the word gay to mean icky but it is based on ignorance and the idea that organizations should control how people speak.

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  20. 24

    “Using “gay” as an insult should never be tolerated ”

    You sick demented hypocritical fecalist. Sick demented perverted mind, you are the definition of how far human nature has become so twisted beyond belief. You actually think the most dangerous element to mankind and the human family should be a sexual orifice. Your mind is so deviant I don’t believe there is any hope for you whatsoever, you are given over to a reprobate mind.

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