The word faggot's been on the national lips as of late, largely because of Isaiah Washington's tactless -and equally explosive - reference to Grey's Anatomy co-star TR Knight. There's been a rash of like-minded stories since then, most recently Tim Hardaway's less-than-friendly comments on the gays.

Considering these developments, one would think homophobia's the next big thing. But what is that thing? What is homophobia? Sure, we know it's a fear of gay people, but to earn the right of "phobia", it would have to be an "extreme and/or irrational fear". Is homophobia an actual fear or is it a choice?

That's the question Desiree Cooper asks in her most recent journalistic offering, "Homophobia? Call it hatred" in which she recalls a reader's reaction to her Hardaway coverage. Said reader writes: "Why do they call it homopho-bia? It's not like it's a mental disorder. We need another term." Cooper agrees, thus leading her down a path that leads her from the late Andrew Anthos, who died after being attacked by a "homophobe", to University of Michigan professor, Jack Kay. An expert on so-called hate speech, Kay tells Cooper:

Homophobia is a weasel word because it focuses attention on the wrong thing. It seems to indicate that there's a pathological explanation, rather than it's inappropriate, learned behavior.

Refusing to get bogged down by semantics, Cooper concludes that there's only one word for the person who attacked Anthos and his ilk: "monster". True, but we'd like to make an amendment: "fucking monster".

Related: What's in A Word?