The Gay Thread

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by lashbear

Oh, and a lot of queer folk here now refer to themselves as "Queer" as an inclusive term rather than GLBT. I like it because it strips the power of it being a derogatory slur.

See, I like that approach.

[innerSpaceman]

See, but I hate the word queer. (Just as I hate the word "straight") Both imply something wrong with gay people. And I guess I just don't like the sound of it.

I prefer "fag" - yeah, I know its etymology and that's really disturbing. But the word itself does not mean odd or bent or unnatural. It means wood. And, frankly, that's the part of a fag I kinda like the best.

[SzczerbiakManiac]

• Until reading the posts in this thread today, I had never heard "homosexual" used to specifically connote males.
• To me, "gay" is like "mankind" in that it really does refer to both genders, but some people insist it's just talking about dudes. Whatever, I have more important battles to fight.
• Lesbian has always been strictly female.
• "Queer" is the umbrella term. It can refer to anything on the Kinsey scale above 0.1 as well as transgender, questioning, and even heterosexuals who feel they have a 'queer sensibility".

[Ghoulish Delight]

"Homosexual" tends to be unisex, but "homo" tends to be male.

[JWBear]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

When I was a kid, queer was a derogatory insult on the same par as faggot. I think it's cool that kids today are adopting it at a quick pace - - but then again, I'm a guy who thinks we should use "fag" as an affectionate term, to disarm it in the same way blacks have done with (note that as a white guy I must still refer to it as) the "N"WORD.



JW - Long Beach Lesbians are a breed apart. Of course they call themselves Gay.

They're not all from Long Beach. Orange County has lesbians too.

[Moonliner]

Ha ha NOM. You got served.

Originally Posted by News

When cartoonist Zach Weiner discovered that NOM (an anti-gay marriage lobbying group) had appropriated one of his comics as a hotlink on its website, he fired back in the simplest, cleverest way he could. He changed the image

[Kevy Baby]

Yeah for small victories!

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

"Homosexual" tends to be unisex, but "homo" tends to be male.

Maybe I need to start paying better attention. My perception has been that "homosexual" was biased towards male specific usage. Maybe I'm biased against The Gays™

[Ghoulish Delight]

Overall, it probably is biased that way - again mostly because for quite a while, only male homosexuals were considered "really" homosexual, with female homosexuality having a long history of flying under the radar. But the phrase "homosexual male" is one I hear pretty commonly, to distinguish from the general "homosexual". And really, the broad use of "homosexual" (as opposed to gay, fag, homo, queer) is generally by people with some level of respect, which means they ARE being inclusive.

[Kevy Baby]

What about "rope smoker" - where does that fit in?