blather
that's_gay
anne-girl some girl ranting about the gamers' club people playing RPGS
"They're so gay. You know, not gay as in homosexual, that's ok... just gay as in GAY!" 		060214
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Blathing Gay Guy Ah. Then she must have meant that it was filled with merriment and glee. 060214
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epitome of incomprehensibility Thanks for that. You made me laugh. Also made me worry about the future of the so-called rational species, but that's OK. Reminds me of all those "no offense, but..." statements. 060215
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silentbob no offense but that's gay. 060215
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ivyducktwilightseto good one bob.
I say things like this all the time, but I have absolutely zero prejudice against gays. I often go out of my way to defend gay rights. I suppose I just say it because everyone else does. Which... is pretty gay. lol. It really seems to have lost it's true meaning in my school, though. oh well.. 		060215
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misstree each time my eyes have slid across this in blather recent, i've recoiled, shuddered, my face has squinched up and i've supressed a snarl.

words have power. language shapes thoughts. being liberal doesn't mean that saying things like "that's gay" lose their impact; a person passing you in the street, hearing that phrase, has no idea of your background, as an extreme example. that person may have issues with homosexuality themselves (coming out, loved one has come out, etc.), and hearing it in that context would make them feel like shit. someone who's homophobic, hearing such usage, would feel their opinoins reinforced.

so no, if you're gonna talk the talk walk the walk, reprogram your mouth so that you're not saying "jewing someone" for being cheap or "just like a woman" when a friend cries or "that's gay" when something is pathetic. you may not mean any offense, but throwing a spear and then saying that you never meant to impale anyone, and in fact you work in a triage unit, doesn't fix the big piece of wood in someone's gut.

i've just been spouting on the societal end of linguistic programming; it gets even more intense once you get inside the brainbox, but that's all the patience i have for lessons today.

and, as a final note, yes i do jump down people's throats for saying this in person. if you can't be bothered to speak in a way that reflects who you are, keep your damn yap shut, and if you don't think it matters, you're entitiled to your opinoin, but it matters to me, so keep harmful ignorant laziness out of your language in my presence or face my wrath. rawr. 		060216
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you like saying "thats gay"? suck my dick then misstree i agree. it's not like this language doesn't have tons of other derisions available (i.e. that's fucked up, that's bullshit, that's inane, that's idiotic, that's stupid, etc). my co-worker constantly says "that's gay" for practicly everything he doesn't like. it makes him sound quite unintelligent/unenlightened. 060216
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Another Gay Skite Well *I* disagree. Words and phrases shouldn't be banned just cuz someone get's offended. In Latin a main word for black is "negro". What, am I supposed to tip toe around in my friend's last name, Kike? We call him Kike, and we call S. Johnson by Johnson. Sorry, but PC stuff has its limits. No its not cool to tell some gay kid that you are going to beat his faggot ass into the ground. Bad idea. But if I see a bunch of collared guys wearing leather prancing down 5th St. beneath a rainbow banner, I'm sorry but "that's so gay". 060216
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ok...but who still speaks latin? 060216
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oh oops nothing was said about speaking it 060216
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I Am Cosmopolitan "I don't have anything against gay people so I'm going to casually use a phrase that might potentially offend some of them." 060217
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ivyducktwilightseto yeah yeah so I'm a bastard, so what?
You guys are right though, I guess I should work on this. I definitely never use "jewed" or any other racial slur EVER so that's a step at least. 		060217
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Casey My speech teacher would yell at kids if they used the word "gay" as a negative connotation. To this day I still feel guilty when I say it 060403
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poet no one ever said it wasnt ok to use the word gay to describe someone or something that is gay. and no one ever suggested banning the word "gay". 060404
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poet and the word "negro" has meant black for a long time. the secondary meaning and the negative connotation came much later. 060404
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stork daddy people who say this are fags. 060405
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bricks force of habit but whatever. homogaysexual 060406
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sardo Nick how DARE we be oversensitive about this in a society that loves us so DEARLY! 060410
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unhinged well, in some cases it's entirely okay to say this. if i see someone walking down the street that is a dead ringer for elton_john behind the piano and i say 'that's gay' i'm not going to feel guilty about it. but, it always alarmed me when i hung out with my brother and his 'jock' friends the frequency with which they said 'that's gay' especially when they really meant 'that's stupid/lame' i used to yell at him for that all the time; he always told me to shutup but i was vindicated when he went to college and had a gay roommate and i called him at school and we were talking and he said 'i stopped saying 'that's gay' cause i don't want to offend my roommate' so at least the kid has the prescence of mind to be a closet homophobe. but college changed a lot about him. he's all growed up now; that makes me feel old and sad that i'm missing it. my brother is more mature and grown_up than i am now. sad_but_true (or maybe scary_but_true ) 060410
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epitome of incomprehensibility Funny anecdote: I saw a guy recently wearing a T-shirt that proclaimed, "Homophobia is so gay."

Now that "queer" has gone from being an insult to a synonym for gay, I think it's fair to say that offensive words can be turned around and used by the maligned party.
Although this isn't a one-size-fits-all rule, and it's open to debate.

In Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, he includes a fictionalized account of the beginnings of Islam in which he calls the prophet Muhammed "Mahound". This, so I read, is an insulting term given to him by anti-Islamic medieval Christians. In the book, Rushdie says he's using it in the power-to-the-oppresed-by-appropriating-the-oppressor's-language kind of way.

Apparently the Ayatollah Khomeini did not appreciate this.

Some food for thought, I hope. I don't know how much sense I'm making. 		061217
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. While I thank you for posting that, E_o_I, and am glad that you did, I regret to inform you that you did in fact make sense. Consequently, you failed to epitomize incomprehensibility. Sounds like it's time for a_huge_z. 061217
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modality of ineluctability I knew it was you... 061218
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thoughtfullythoughtless i dont get why anyone cares. im gay and i say thats gay all the time. i point out gays and i also use it in the sense of thats stupid/retarded. its a word if someone is that easily offended by words then they should just lock themselves in their house or something and learn to except that people say stupid shit all the time 090421
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silentbob It has been so long since I have said this. 090609
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danny so do you still agree with yourself bob? 090610
what's it to you? blather
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