Kink Friendly Law

It would seem that I have been inhabiting the underside of a rock lately, because I just learned that the term Homosexual has become the offensive word de jour when you want to describe an openly gay individual in the most offensive terms. Move over “fudge packer” Hello! homosexual!Normally I don’t read, or for that matter even pay attention to the New York Times, but an item caught my eye on another website attributed to the Times. It was a poll conducted jointly by CBS and the New York Times asking two questions regarding gays and the military. While both questions where substantially the same there was a slight difference in phraseology. In one question the word “gay” was used while in the second the word “homosexual”; the results were wildly different.

John Aravosis of AmericaBlog’s contends that “‘homosexual’ has become a dirty word, one that conjures negative meanings and is all too-frequently used by right-wing activists to demonize or paint LGBT people with scary brushstrokes.”

While the term “homosexual” does sound clinical and is rather formal, prior to reading the Times poll results and resulting story I’d never associated the word with a negative context. However, perhaps it is time to delete this word from the national vocabulary. But then, maybe, just maybe the better response is for gays and lesbians to OWN this term with pride taking away the stigma and ability of rabid homophobes to use it to demonize them.

© 2010, edward. All rights reserved.

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