If it sounds like this list came from the headquarters of GLAAD, it’s because it might as well have. The run down of eight phrases deserving of banishment from media (and conversation?), while appropriately obvious to many, still get tossed around everywhere from the New York Times to the Associated Press to Fox News. So what terms need to be nixed?
We won’t give them all away, but among them: “gay lifestyle,” “special rights,” and, hands down our favorite, “friend,” as in “Annie Leibovitz and Susan Sontag were friends.”
Wrong. They were best friends.
daftpunkydavid
i don’t understand where you’re coming from, guys. and, objectively, it looks like pure jealousy because you arguably don’t have the same clout/respect. but that can’t be true right? i suggest you do a better job explaining what motivates your animus towards gay, inc.
Andrew F
I nominate the word “homophobia” for bannishment.
“A phobia is an irrational, intense, persistent fear of certain situations, activities, things, or people. The main symptom of this disorder is the excessive, unreasonable desire to avoid the feared subject. When the fear is beyond one’s control, or if the fear is interfering with daily life, then a diagnosis under one of the anxiety disorders can be made.” (From Wikipedia.)
Thus, a phobia is a psychiatric illness that can be cured (or mitigated) through scientifically sound medicine or therapy by medical professionals. I’m sure there are a handful of true homophobes who are actually scared of us homos — and their fear (probably) doesn’t manifest by way of disturbing and intrusive protest or gay bashing.
Less this handful, the remainder is the vast majority which are faux-“homophobes.”
In short you can’t cure this kind of crazy. You can’t cure a bigot. They’re beings who rationalize their actions and hate.
I suggest these folks be called “heterosexist”, similar to simply “sexist” or “racist”. Heterosexists are just bigots who misappropriate a medical condition to justify their vitriol. They’re like sexists who demean women, or racists who have a problem with a Latina judge actually making it to the SCOTUS. (I’m lookin’ at you, Sessions.)
In short: Homophobia — normally bad nomenclature, but in fact a treatable illness. Heterosexism — bigot who rationalizes their hatred towards gays.
TANK
I nominate “hella” As in “that’s hella sick!” And “sick” to refer to something that’s cool. Punch a skater, kick a hippie, save a life.
D-Sun
As long as we’re banning words, can we get rid of ‘grotto?’ I hate that one.
Deonte Harris
http://www.sun-sentinel.com
FORT LAUDERDALE – To the South Florida gay community, Jonathan Bleiweiss was a pioneering, openly gay Broward sheriff’s deputy who fought discrimination within that agency earlier in his career.
But court documents released Tuesday portray Bleiweiss, 29, as a manipulative sex offender who preyed on illegal immigrants too scared to contact authorities. He would act like a jilted lover when the men would not return his calls or text messages, according to those records, based on victims’ accounts.
Bleiweiss, arrested Monday, faces 14 charges, among them three counts of sexual battery by a person in authority, four counts of battery and one count of stalking. He’s accused of intimidating at least eight men in his Oakland Park patrol district into performing sex acts with him during traffic stops.
Investigators said they opened the case in April, after learning a deputy was committing the assaults. Officials on Tuesday declined to say when Bleiweiss became a suspect.
He was removed from road patrol in mid-July, only after there was substantive proof to make a case, said Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Veda Coleman-Wright.
The court documents state the men positively identified Bleiweiss from a photo lineup starting in July.
Eric Schwartzreich, the deputy’s attorney, said, “I do point out that they are allegations by undocumented aliens, that at this point in time I’m not seeing any physical evidence to support the allegations.” During a bond hearing on Tuesday, he said it was too early to fully comment on the case.
Court records show most of the alleged attacks followed a pattern: The victims were fondled during pat-downs following early-morning traffic stops.
Some were coerced to give up cell phone numbers and agreed to meet for future sexual encounters. In all cases, the men told investigators they felt they could not refuse the uniformed deputy’s demands without a reprisal.
Jaya
“Gal pal”. Kill it dead, gossip columnists who want to slyly out someone without, you know, outing someone.
It’s not the 1940s anymore. If they’re fucking, just say so.
getreal
I agree completely the terms on that list are patronizing at best and derogatory.I will immediately stop using them.
Jack
@Deonte Harris: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0prdFzYHkIA
Nyer
@Andrew F: I 100% agree I always thought the term really made no sense. It also seems to lessen the severity of the irriational hatred of gay ppl by labeling it a ” fear”
Vege
Get rid of vegetable ‘MEDLEY’.
M Shane
No. 9 · Nyer : of hand there are a number of word usages that are repeated and become boring, but with Homophobia, which had never occured to me, it’s simply a misnomer: hatred and fear are very different feelings and connot entirely different attitudes and actions.
As fare as predilections and preferrances go , it seems as if that applies to both tendancies.
schlukitz
“Lifestyle neutral”.
Does that mean one is lacking either a penis or a vagina?
alicia banks
i never refer to ANY sexuality as a lifestyle
blogging is a lifestyle
hets are never demeaned so
so why we should gays be?
heterosexality and homosexuality are both LIVES always!
schlukitz
@alicia banks:
Hear. Hear!