Angela Harlem: There is nothing at all in the slightest wrong with calling a homosexual 'gay'. I have gay friends who definately would describe themselves as gay and not be offended were someone to say 'you're gay' by way of describing their sexual preference. What the problem is: people call anything gay.. here's some examples of things I hear around school all the time "man, that test was gay", "ah man, what a downer that's so gay" etc. the difficulty with that being gay does not mean homosexual in that context, it doesn't mean feminine, or cheerful, or happy.. it is the equivalent of saying "that sucks", "that blows", "that's lame", "forsooth that is an unworthy fellow" or what have you. This is offensive because by becoming synonymous with these bad things, it implies that gay is bad and gay people are inferior. I mean, how would you feel if you were gay and all the bad things in the world were termed in a like manner? Imagine if something horrible happened to someone and he said "man, that's so muslim" or "that was totally jewish"... pretty offensive, no? well it's pretty much the same thing and it is not cool at all and steps should be made to put an end to it. At this point it is so ingrained in popular culture that people say it all the time without realizing that they are very potentially offending people present. I'm sure some gay people are used to it, and joke about it, but in my mind that doesn't make it acceptable. Of course some people might say "well, words change, meanings change, so since gay also now means repugnant, well so be it" i guess they're free to their opinion, i just disagree strongly with it.
cheers!
I figure it is more about the misplaced meaning, but despite knowing a few people who are, I think I've only ever had actual conversations about all this kind of thing with one and that was because he was quite into the whole thing. We were students at the time (studying sociology and welfare) and he did a lot of fantastic work in the gay community with HIV/AIDS sufferers. I dont want to generalise or assume though, whats good for one, is not going to be the same for all, so its something I try to never say, simply because you dont know who is going to get offended and its such a small thing to be making a fuss over, much like sexuality in the first place. Its one word and only one aspect of someone's total self.
although I admit it takes concentration since I hear them all over the place.
