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Q. for gays and lesbians here... | by Illiad | 2004-12-14 09:11:21 |
| Mostly it comes down to intent, actually... |
by LthrOttr |
2004-12-14 11:35:38 |
I saw this post before I left for work, but needed some time to think about it.
One important thing to note, starting out... the homosexual, bisexual, and/or transgendered community is no more monolithic than the hetersexual community. It has as many subsets as the heterosexual community, and thus as many variations in statements.
The "safest" terms are generally gay and lesbian. Some lesbian's don't like being called gay as they consider "gay" to be male only... however others don't mind so much. I haven't heard lesbian used as a general derogatory term (other than in disgust that a woman would want to be in relationship or have sex with another woman... and normally when I've heard it in that context, it was by a woman... for some reason, straight men seem to go ***drooooollll*** Can I watch???). Gay, however, has entered the slang vernacular as a negative it seems amongst youngish folks these days. So, it all comes out to context.
Faggot is pretty much generally always used as a derogatory term, though it can be used in a playful way from within the homosexual grouping (similar to racial derogatory terms in the black community [given the itnernational nature of the board, I really don't think using the usual US connotations to that racial group work] amongst themselves). Queen is similar... is more of a stereotype of a particular sub-set, and has a fair amount of baggage. And folks from outside that subset, such as myself, would take quite a bit of offense on the "queen" label.
Dyke is a problematic one... some lesbians prefer that term strongly, others back away from it. Not really sure on that... would need to ask one of the women on that one.
All in all, it pretty much comes down to intent and context. There are definitely some contexts in which the usage of the word is automatically derogatory (such as an evangelical christian revival meeting, as one for instance).
There isn't a black/white answer for this one, but for the most part it rolls down to intent and context.
My $0.02, for what it is worth.
LthrOttr |
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[ Reply ] |
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I'll second that. | by Ubergeek2 | 2004-12-14 11:50:30 |
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Thanks for the info, Ottr! | by Illiad | 2004-12-14 13:01:55 |
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Most Welcome... | by LthrOttr | 2004-12-14 14:53:21 |
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A few additional observations | by zelda | 2004-12-14 15:17:02 |
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