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Originally Posted by bad jane
considering i hear homosexuals use that phrase in the same way on a regular basis, gonna disagree with that comment. definitions of words change with time. gay and queer didn't have anything to do with homosexuality not so long ago. that the word gay is now moving away from primarily meaning homosexual (or its original definition) towards something different is hardly shocking or indicative of homophobia.
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You are right about this but, what sort of changes in basic thought occur when words change meanings like this? 'Gay' originally meaning "lighthearted, merry, cheerful" comes to describe homosexuals, how? Men and women both may say the worst emotional pain they've felt comes at the hands of the opposite sex, perhaps viewing homosexuality as an escape from this, an elimination of the tension between the sexes, a resistance to suffering would result in a merry lighthearted existence. From what I've seen this is not the case for homosexual couples. Reguardless some may see things this way, seeing homosexuality as weakness itself because, as I've read, "life is pain, pain is knowledge, knowledge is life". The word having first only signified something a person views as weak and therefore disagreeable, comes to be a name for all things disagreeable, as it is our nature to generalize and simplify. Not all people who say 'thats gay' are homophobic, but the ignorance that would have to be among a majority to create such a change still exists.
*this is slightly off topic but I think still worth sharing
