[Ghoulish Delight]

I see both sides. While I do think that removing that use of the F word is a good social goal to have, and the NBA making a public statement that it won't be tolerated is a good thing, I don't think it reflects as badly on Kobe as (to use the obvious parallel) a white person calling a black person the N word.

I think the "he comes from a different era" defense, as lame is it often sounds, applies. He's my age. When I grew up, that word was not impressed with level of stigma as maybe it should have been. And, even more importantly, it was, in my neck of the woods at least, most often not used in a way that really was intended to connote sexuality. And while I as a more enlightened adult recognize that even such second/third hand denigration shouldn't be acceptable ("F word" means "gay" and gays are bad, therefore by calling you the F word I'm calling you bad), I see a gulf between, "You, black man, are an N word" and, "You, person whose sexuality is likely hetero but is actually unknown to me are an asshole so I'm calling you a F word because that's a near-synonym to asshole in my head".

Again, I want to stress, the NBA and people in general are not wrong to cringe at its use and to strongly discourage it and to continue to work to attach N word level stigma to it. But I don't think that Kobe's use of it is indicative of any particularly strong homophobic tendancies. Lord knows I was guilty of its use for most of my life, and it's still part of my reflexive language (I cringe at myself any time I think it, or think "gay" when I see something effeminate).