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Originally Posted by Gilda
I get sick of the usage of the word "gay" to mean "something I don't like", which is implicitly a form of homophobic language usage. It's nice to hear someone admit that the connection is intended and explicit.
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I find this whole discussion interesting. While I agree with the spirit of this, I find it mildly innervating to see the co-option of words by specific communities, such as "gay" in this case to be associated with the homosexual community, and then placed out-of-bounds for use. To me, it's a little different than the word "nigger" in relation to the black community...I *think* that particular epithet was developed specifically to denigrate black people, whereas the word "gay" was used for a long long time before it became a "homosexual" word. I suppose the same could be said about the word "fag," or for that matter "spook" or a ton of other descriptive terms like this.
I guess I tend to be less upset about words that pre-existed their slang usage of various shades of intolerance than I am by words that are specifically created for that purpose.