Creating a Positive Space for the LGBTQ Community - Page 3 - MacInsiders - Student-run McMaster University Help Forum

03-03-2010 at 02:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mowicz

Then why should someone apologize for using 'gay' to describe someone who's acting... well... queer? (as in, strange/abnormal, not as in homosexual)

You can't have your cake and eat it too... using a derogatory term is using a derogatory term. In fact, I consider 'retarded' much worse since it attacks a group which is largely incapable of defending itself whereas gays can clearly voice their objections.

It's all conditioning...as a society, we've been conditioned to go on Red Alert whenever someone says 'gay' (regardless of the context) but that clearly hasn't happened with 'retarded.'

I was more talking about when someone says something like "Oh, we have a 20 page essay, that's so gay." They're using it directly as a synonym for stupid. If people were to use queer to describe something strange I wouldn't see a problem with it. That's where the word derives from. (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/queer) That's different from using gay as a negative term, which evolved only after the homosexual community started using it.

The term retard to describe a mentally handicapped person arose from slow. (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/retard) The term is no longer used to refer to mentally handicapped people (except by slow adaptors), so what's wrong with using it in its original context?

I dunno, people have a right to say what they want, even if its something we don't agree with or that's hateful. However, I also have the right to berate someone for what they say.