“Homo” is a Four-Letter Word

September 15, 2010

In the latest war on freedom and the right to live your life as you see fit, our enemies have a new weapon at their disposal.

Vocabulary and labeling technology.

This insidious, nay, diabolic tool has taken a single word and turned it into a derogatory term so vile I almost shudder at having to write it. It is a word so offensive it would make a Klansman recoil. It would easily get me slapped with an FCC fine if I said it on television.

This word, dear reader, is “homosexual.”

straight guy for gay rights by ~beanpatrol on deviantART

…Wait what?

Yes, it seems that the word “homosexual” is now derogatory. This is news to me. A few days ago, Ana of The Young Turks published a very pro-gay couple article. It received some flak from the gay community, or at least some of Ana’s readers, since it referred to gay men and women as “homosexuals.” This prompted a segment on The Young Turks.

Basically, since conservatives use the term “homosexual” in a bad light, it’s apparently gotten a negative connotation. I guess it does sound cold, scientific, and some people got really mad at Ana for it. In particular, one response on the article was from a gay man who said he was offended The Young Turks would dismiss his concerns as craziness.

Well, I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to call that reader, and anyone else who thinks “homosexual” is a negative term, an idiot. If you’re offended by a scientific term describing a sexual orientation, you should be equally offended by bisexual and heterosexual. “Homosexual” is a purely descriptive term that is often said with either revulsion or hate by many far-right wingers and fundamentalists.

That doesn’t mean it’s a bad word.

Remember when words like “liberal” and “progressive” got a similar treatment. Right now, Beck has turned the word “progressive,” which means “favoring or advocating progress, change, improvement, or reform, as opposed to wishing to maintain things the way they are, esp. in political matters” into a term for bad people. If you’re progressive, you’re against everything that regular, red-blooded Americans love! Oh noes!

Nothing in that definition about socialism, communism, or killing grandma by taking away her feeding tube, and yet now people are afraid of being branded “progressive.” Some people, like me, take the term to heart and believe its definition is the only thing that matters, not that some yahoo thinks it’s bad. I don’t care what they think. I know what it means to me. That’s enough.

Philosophy by ~sanitynvrfoundme on deviantART

Likewise, even if the term “homosexual” is getting a bad connotation, that only means you’re offended by it if you’re offended by homosexuality in general.

Yes, I’m serious. Think of it this way. Why are so many people offended by the mosque near Ground Zero. Not ON Ground Zero. NEAR Ground Zero. It’s because they’re offended by Muslims. I’ve said it before. The same thing applies here. If you think a purely scientific description for a sexual orientation is offensive, it’s because you think the state of being it describes is offensive to you.

And what does that mean? You don’t like gays.

There are a lot of terms that are honestly offensive. I could list them, but I’m actually going to refrain because I haven’t the time or the energy. You know the terms for gays. So do I. Every group has its racial slurs, but the technical or neutral definitions of these groups are not insults and are not offensive.

The fact is that almost any term can turn into a negative if it’s used as such. However, we’re at a critical moment. The word “homosexual” as a slur hasn’t been established yet. It’s possible to salvage this by keeping it as a purely descriptive term. I don’t intend to use it any other way.

And really, do we need ANOTHER slur for minorities?

This is me by ~SmellyMarkers on deviantART

Well, now that we have all that out of the way, let’s see some fun stuff.

• If you’re ever caught with child pornography, don’t tell the cops your cat did it. It clearly didn’t work for this guy. Or, as my girlfriend joked, “Maybe the cat wanted to find ‘kitty’ porn and misspelled it.’”

• If you’re on the internet, you’ve probably heard of Christina Hendricks’, uhm, ample bosoms. Yes, they have a loyal fan following, but an equally large group of people willing to look through hundreds of photos to see if these breasts are hand-crafted by God or silicone. The debate goes on…

• With all the problems in the world, I thought that the debate on whether or not the Earth was at the center of the universe had been pretty much solved centuries ago. Alas, if you live in Indiana, you may be able to attend Galileo Was Wrong, a conference where they will explain the latest evidence for a geocentric universe. (sigh).

• Governor Ah-nold of Conan blasted fellow Republican Sarah Palin. Apparently, says the Big Man himself, you really can’t see Russia from Alaska. Oh well.

• This is fairly NSFW, but if you want to see some highlights of this year’s National Topless Day, go right ahead.

• Calvin and Hobbes had a style all their own, and now some talented artists have done a few other images in that same art style. I’m a fan of the Star Wars themed images.

• I have to admit… when it comes to trying to curve the solicitation of sex, it’s one thing to pass laws. It’s another to designate special sex areas where Johns can get their coffee percolated. That’s just weird.

• And finally, see the VERY wrong way to go about running a business. A business that sells candy to kids. Penis-shaped candy. From a white van.