Use of the word straight. Just as offensive?

[ForrestDixon]

I would say that your just thinking about this to much. I have alot of friends that are gay or bi-sexual and they use the word gay. I think its the way you say it more than if your actually saying it (made more sense in my head, sorry). I am white and I use the word "******" or "nigga" (yell at me later) but I only say it around a certin audience, like my black friends who are open to that sort of language. But im not going to use that word to a person I have never met who is black, or to somone that finds it offencive. I think the way your using it is ok and I dont think it is a big deal to use the word gay anyway. With how people are becoming more "gay aware/ gay accepting" the word is not as brutal and can be said in a joking manner.

 

[BubbleGumSnareDrum]

I mean, I consider myself somewhere between bisexual and bicurious, and with the knowledge that I am in fact a feeling and intelligent human being makes it hard for me to understand how anyone can discriminate based on something age or gender or sexual orientation. I have a lot of friends of every color, creed and sexuality and I consider them all to be amazing people.

It sickens me that we still have to live in a world where people are hated for harmless choices that they make, or in the case of racism, something that they did not even have an opportunity to choose. I feel that my life is made easier by the fact that I am only half-Egyptian and not full-blooded. My outward appearance is that of a dark-haired, slightly tanned white guy. If I were full-blooded I'm almost certain that I would receive a lot of hate speech in the area I live in (middle-class Mid Western America) for how I would look.

People are so goddamn ignorant.

 

[Mr0llivand3r]

how is usung the term "straight" offensive? i don't see how someone could be mad to be called straight

Did you read the OP? I thought I clearly presented my point of view there.

yes i did, and maybe you forgot that even though the word "straight" could mean "fine" or "ok", the word "gay" originally meant "happy"

 

[Evilbunny]

how is usung the term "straight" offensive? i don't see how someone could be mad to be called straight

Did you read the OP? I thought I clearly presented my point of view there.

yes i did, and maybe you forgot that even though the word "straight" could mean "fine" or "ok", the word "gay" originally meant "happy"

I know that, but I didn't talk about calling somebody straight in my OP, I talked about using it as a term to describe something that was ok, and if that could be offensive to gay people. I never spoke of using straight as an insult. That's why I was confused about your mentioning of calling somebody straight.

 

[MagnetoHydroDynamics]

This is the kind of PC bullshit that will be punishable by death under my regime. Death by being immersed in low-quality phosphorous and thrown into a swimming pool.

Let me explain this. For all, gay refers to homosexual. Now, for many, male homosexuality would be a bad thing, in particular for straight men, as having another man's penis in one's anus is as unappealing as death by a particularly inaccurate firing squad. With nailguns.

Therefore, gay is bad. While a person's lifestyle choice is just that, a choice, the PC brigade is going to have to get over the fact that for most people, homosexuality is bad. Which it is- it is a fundamentally unnatural act, but we tolerate it because:

1. It would be expensive and pointless to stop it#
2. It's minor and harms no-one.
3. Freedom.
4. In the case of women, it's very often a beautiful thing.
5. In the case of men, it reduces the competition.


As Mr Terry Prattchet, one does not go about thinking "This is how people are, how do we change them?", but rather one must take the approach of "This is how people are, how do we deal with that?", a far more sensible suggestion. Persecuting individuals for such minor acts of bigotry- harmless bigotry, is as irrational as persecuting homosexuals for harmless, if unnatural sex.

And yes, I am bigoted, and yet I somehow manage to get along with homosexuals, even as friends. (Gasp!) Why?

Because it is, in fact, not bigotry. It's cultural, it's mental, it's simply a turn of phrase and a twist of the tongue, and it's as abjectly harmless as the nitrogen in the air. So....get the fuck over it.


Yours sincerely,

Lord Fondant.

This

/thread

 

[Grand_Poohbah]

I never thought about that, but i figure straight has so many more meanings that just heterosexual. I know gay also means happy, but hardly anyone uses it in that context any more.

 

[Riyka]

gay is only a 'bad' word when you use it in a derogatory context. Like if you didn't like someone and you called them Gay to be offensive and mean to them, or if you described something they did as gay to cause upset.

The same applies to the word straight..although ive never heard the word straight used to describe anything that isnt straight..:S

A lot of my friends are gay and i'll quite often refer to my their actions as gay, (i think the more appropriate term would be camp but anyway..) obviously you will always get people who will still find it offensive but im not calling him gay to upset him, its a joke between friends like calling a mate emo or goth as far as were concerned.

when people used to call my ex-gf and i gay, it didn't really bother me cause yanno we wereXD what irritated me more was the sterotypes they assumed came with being gay.
It's like when someone spread's a rumour about you being gay in highsch, and suddenly everyone thinks you gonna peek at them in the changing rooms...because obviously every single girl on the earth is suddenly the target of your sexual frustration ¬_¬

It's less about the offensiveness of the comments and more about the childish behaviour of those who use it. I mostly just feel sorry for these people...they clearly haven't left high school...

What pisses me off more than hearing people call things gay, is people assuming someone is gay because of the way they dress or the way they act. Or indeed straight.

 

[Consistence]

that's so straight

 

[GunnerGraye]

I wouldn't even say the word "gay" is offensive. It's a lifestyle choice with a title, get over it.

Exactly, I agree entirely, dude.

 

[Danny Smooth]

As an aside, I wish people would get the spelling of "straight" straight.

 

[KeyMaster45]

Let's get a few things straight:

1. Being gay is NOT a choice.
2. There is nothing unnatural about being gay (homosexuality does exist in nature, after all).
3. Being gay is not just about gay sex.

You're going to have to explain #2 on your list there dude, I don't have a wealth of animal knowledge, but can you point out an instance what animal has gone on record for doing the nasty with a member of the same sex.

As for #1, no I don't think its a choice. I think its a psychological state of mind that grew out of either the environment the person lived in as a child, constantly being called gay or afemenant as a child, sexual confusion as a teen that gets dricted wrongly by those around the person, having parents that are very overbearing about their child turning out gay, or that society paints it very black and white in terms of being gay or straight when someone could simply be sexually curious.

Nature is all about survival, eg. reproduction and the continuation of the species. Sorry bud, but claiming that being gay is part of nature (without proof to back it up no less) comes off as being a very ignorant, very overzealous statement.

I'll beat you to the point on this one, no I'm not homophobic. Gay people are still people and I treat them as such. I have gay friends, not several gay friends, but gay friends none the less I'm perfectly comfortable hanging out with. The idea of homophobia is a rather silly idea. While there are people sexually insecure enough to literally nearly lose their cool when around gay people, to call someone homophoic simply because they don't support the gay/lesbian cause is an ignorant way to defend something.

Oh and another thing, yes, it does piss me off when people go on a "We're here, we're queer, get used to it" tangent. Ok, you're gay, big freaking deal that doesn't make you a special citizen. You want to get married? Fine, go right ahead and pay marriage taxes like the rest of us. And that goes for all you f'ing activist groups out there. Don't shove you're cause down our throats with the same ignorance and intolerance that you claim us to have. Doing so only fosters more hate and intolerance.

In fact, this whole thread is just a ticking flame war time bomb that needs to be shut down before it gets ugly. There are two things you tend not to talk about in a public setting: Religion and Politics. This falls under both, magnifying the bar fight with banjo background music that is sure to break out in time.

Let the responses of anger and misplaced, zealous, hypocritic passion commence.

RAWRRRR!!!!!

 

[Fronken]

I wouldn't even say the word "gay" is offensive. It's a lifestyle choice with a title, get over it.

According to every single gay person i have ever known it is NOT a choice, and according to science it is NOT a choice, its something you are born with, you cant help it, only ones who think its a choice is religious fanatics who think that gay people are the scourge of the earth.

So yes, using the word gay is the exact same thing as using the term "black person" or "jew" or "muslim".

And yes, it is offensive if used in the wrong way, its the same thing with all "titles", if used incorrectly they are offensive, but if used with maturity they are acceptable and just another word.

 

[Fronken]

Let's get a few things straight:

1. Being gay is NOT a choice.
2. There is nothing unnatural about being gay (homosexuality does exist in nature, after all).
3. Being gay is not just about gay sex.

You're going to have to explain #2 on your list there dude, I don't have a wealth of animal knowledge, but can you point out an instance what animal has gone on record for doing the nasty with a member of the same sex.

Nature is all about survival, eg. reproduction and the continuation of the species. Sorry bud, but claiming that being gay is part of nature (without proof to back it up no less) comes off as being a very ignorant, very overzealous statement.

Let the responses of anger and misplaced, zealous, hypocritic passion commence.

RAWRRRR!!!!!

Homosexuality has been recorded amongst just about every species of animals out there, lions, monkeys, zevhras etc..

So yes, homosexuality is a part of nature and it has always been.

And about the "survival" thing, homosexuality doesnt stand in its way, ofc a species of animals would become extinct if every single animal was gay, but thats not the case, just look at us humans as an example, there are alot of homosexuals amongst us, but we have no problem keeping our numbers up, its the exact same thing in nature.

If my response is filled with "anger and misplaced, zealous, hypocritic passion" i'll let you be the judge of, im just stating the truth.

 

[Evilbunny]

Let's get a few things straight:

1. Being gay is NOT a choice.
2. There is nothing unnatural about being gay (homosexuality does exist in nature, after all).
3. Being gay is not just about gay sex.

You're going to have to explain #2 on your list there dude, I don't have a wealth of animal knowledge, but can you point out an instance what animal has gone on record for doing the nasty with a member of the same sex.

Your Google-fu is weak [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/02/07/MNG3N4RAV41.DTL]

 

[Superbeast]

Careful, otherwise the PC Police will get you (they've successfully banned the phrase policeman, chairman, fireman and are trying to get rid of human too these days) - for once they deem "straigth" to be offensive, as it implies perfection (and the opposite being imperfection/wrog) then what shall we call a line that does not curve?

Draw a non-curving line...
Travel for 5 miles down the non-curving road...

'Tis a dangerous place to be.

No, in all seriousness, though I believe there is a need for some level of political correctness, here (in the UK) it's gone a bit crazy - even if most people ignore the crazy (and the craziest are usually in relation to the divide between men/women and job titles).

 

[HonorableChairman]

I have never heard straight used that way, myself. But I don't use gay to describe something bad.

I do use fag, though. But whatever.

 

[KeyMaster45]

Homosexuality has been recorded amongst just about every species of animals out there, lions, monkeys, zevhras etc..

So yes, homosexuality is a part of nature and it has always been.

And about the "survival" thing, homosexuality doesnt stand in its way, ofc a species of animals would become extinct if every single animal was gay, but thats not the case, just look at us humans as an example, there are alot of homosexuals amongst us, but we have no problem keeping our numbers up, its the exact same thing in nature.

If my response is filled with "anger and misplaced, zealous, hypocritic passion" i'll let you be the judge of, im just stating the truth.

Ok, proof was all I was looking for, and the last bit is just to spite those who would be douchbags about my response. Don't...try and think to hard about that reasoning, you'll hurt yourself.

and yes, my google fu is very weak. Much more training need I.