From July 5 through September 26, the website NoHomophobes.com has tracked over 2.4 million instances of the word “faggot” appearing in tweets. Last week alone, it was tweeted 218,946 times, or an average of 30,000 times a day.
According to a press release, the website, created by the University of Alberta’s Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services (iSMSS) was designed to serve as a “social mirror” and counts tweets that use the terms: “Faggot” (2.4 million), “So Gay” (800,000 tweets), “No Homo” (800,000 tweets) and “Dyke” (300,000 tweets).
“We never imagined the scale of casual homophobia that actually exists on social media,” said Dr. Kristopher Wells, the Institute’s Associate Director. “The use of homophobic language remains one of the few socially acceptable forms of discrimination in our society and make no mistake, leads to isolation, bullying, beatings, and tragically youth suicide.”
The site was launched yesterday and features live tweets containing the offensive epithets.
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Dr. Wells continued, “Our use of casual homophobia must end. We are all responsible to put a stop to it. The lives of our youth, and the humanity of our society depends upon it.”
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
i found it weirdly compulsive watching all that ignorance, indifference or hate ticking by so fast. and depressing.
i don’t no why but i was especially surprised and saddened by the number of girls and women using “faggot”, and “no homo.”
however, there’s a glitch in their monitoring that calls into question the overall accuracy of the figures: i observed several neutral “…also gay” treated as the diss “so gay.” but overall a good idea.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
i found it weirdly compulsive watching all that ignorance, indifference or hate ticking by so fast. and depressing.
i don’t no why but i was especially surprised and saddened by the number of girls and women using “f@ggot” *, and “no homo.”
however, there’s a glitch in their monitoring that calls into question the overall accuracy of the figures: i observed several neutral “…also gay” treated as the diss “so gay.” but overall a good idea.
[*they didn’t employ the “@” whereas, ironically, i had to — because queerty blocked the first uncensored version, which shows how ridiculous the comment mod is, especially now we’re all members. please drop the silly unnecessary censorship it’s hindering debate. ]
Ben
Its sickening to see all the hate. A couple that I watched go by involved a group of guys posting about their friend and telling him he should die…that is very bad!
2eo
Stupid people use Twitter, ergo the amount of moronic things said is very high.
It isn’t maths it is simple demographics.
hyhybt
A word that is OK for use in articles should, logically, be OK for use in commenting on those articles as well.
The number, though, doesn’t itself mean much.
Dez
This is heartwarming. NOT.
Even something as seemingly harmless as saying ‘that’s so gay’ with a negative connotation is incredibly disrespectful.
Gay slurs are more disrespectful than racial slurs. Why do some black people call each other niggers like it’s a term of endearment? We don’t need to take back the word ‘faggot’; the word needs to be erased from existence.
I’d like to see these people that use gay slurs online to say it to a gay person(s) face. At least, then you’ll get some respect for being an honest jackass- albeit a jackass. Saying hateful things like that online paints you as the coward that you are.
Dez
*Racial slurs are equally disrespectful, but at least racial slurs are not socially acceptable the way gay slurs are. All hateful terms need to be erased from existence. Or at least our vocabulary. Is it so hard to not be a jackass?
LubbockGayMale
Why does that not surprise me?
id2606
hm
Scott Gatz
@hyhybt: Agreed. Now that we are registration required, I white listed “faggot” in the moderation and comments will go through. I think it was catching it from times when wingnuts would come on the site and yell FAGGOT. Please refrain from doing that.
D9W
Make me wonder how many times ‘Breeder’ is used per day?
streeteditions
I remember when Facebook had a question about your friends: “Do you think______ is gay?” And also: “Do you think _____ is retarded?” My response to their page and GLAAD was: “Do you think Mark Zuckerberg is a fag?retarded?” caused me no end of grief and still hampers my Hotmail account.
hyhybt
@Scott Gatz: Well, OK, but only because you insist 🙂
In seriousness, thanks.
Rockery
I know it’s a new thing people are saying things “so gay” instead of “it sucks”. I wonder what type of unconscious effect it has on grade school/high school kids’ feelings about gay people. Who I think use that term the most.