Baraka_Guru

There's definitely an appropriation of terminology going on in the gay community. Well, I think for the most part it's already happened. From what I've observed here, gays and lesbians commonly refer to themselves and each other as "fags," "dykes," and "queers," which were all at one point purely derogatory. I seldom hear "homosexual" or "lesbian," but I will often hear "gay." But "queer" is used way more than "gay," and they seem to have interchangeable meaning.

Also new words are created and used ironically and with humour—"hasbian" for an "ex-lesbian" (i.e. a lesbian who starts up a heterosexual relationship), for example.

So basically we used to have hate spewed at gays with such shouts as "Fag! Dyke! Queer!" Whereas now we have a gay community that proudly uses the very same terminology, as if to say, "Uh, yes, we are homosexual. So I guess we are fags, dykes, and queers. Thank you very much."

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot