Hi, I cant thing of anything better to say!

[TheAbominatrix]

I posted something like this in my lj, but I made it private. I believe this is something that needs to be addressed at the boards. Please take this for what it is, and not some 'longing for the old days' nonsense.

The problem, I believe, is the use of the term 'gay'. No, not in the sense that the joke is getting old. Lately, I've been disgusted by the use of it. Some people can think of nothing better to say than 'this game is gay'.

ofcurse eva 01 rei's one looks horible (but rei tough...) and asuka's eva is totaly gay, and eva spoiler*

X has got to be the worst FF game i have ever played, the main character is a whimp, most of the others are gay

FFX because of Yuna but >snip< Tidus makes is the downside of it

this one was edited by staff.

Yea, but um from what you said, baloki that s gay

Now, I have nothing morally against using the word 'gay' as a substitute for 'sucks'. I use it all the time, jokingly. But only when I'm with people who I know it wouldnt offend. I can think of quite a few people, some of them homosexual, some of them not, who it would seriously offend or hurt. We cant use the 'f-word' around here, because it's, admittidly, offensive. Though I'm sure many of us say it all the time... but most of us wouldnt use it in front of our mothers, it would offend them.

No, I'm not trying to get on the 'this is potentially offensive and thus it should be banned' bandwagon. There's nothing I hate more. But, I think in a society where the whole homosexual issue is a big one, I don't think we should condone what is considered by many to be 'hate speech'. Maybe in our private lives, but not on a public board... especially when there's so many other words to use.

Now, of course, warning the post is the answer. But should we make it a big no-no here, or what? Am I over reacting because I ate too many chocolate-covered pretzels? I figured (and was encouraged) to take it to you, the people, and I do wanna hear how everyone feels.

And please note, I'm not saying that we should censor the word gay constantly, obviously it has it's place, but I don't think the examples used above constitute it's use.

[o_O]

I agree completely with you there. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that the word "gay" used in any derogitary or in place of a swear word always offends me, moreso than swearing (actually that doesn't offend me) even though I'm not gay. I find any sort of discriminatory propganda offensive, particularly racism.

There are far better words to use in disgust than "gay".

[Psychotic]

Yeah, I agree it shouldn't be used in that context but however, I don't actually think it offends homosexuals. Whenever something comes up, I mention my best friend, who is a homosexual, and he couldn't care less if anyone referred to something as gay, or even to him as gay, and the other few homosexuals I know are the same.

So meh, I don't think it should be used that way, but I'm not sure that it offends them. But I guess everyone is different, so I imagine some will be.

[TheAbominatrix]

It definitly depends on the person. Some of my homosexual aquaintances do get offended by it, some dont. And it does depend on whose using it. I call my friends all sorts of names I would never call a stranger, lest I hurt their feelings. Things are different between friends, but I can only imagine what someone scrolling through these boards think when they see such things.

It entirely depends on the people, and because this is a message board and many different people with many different points of view read it, it becomes something of a different matter.

[Rye]

Yeah. I have a habit of using it in the place of "sucks" at times, but I don't do it in places where people can be offended. I'll say it if it's in my house, but not infront of a load of people.

[Mikztsu]

People should just relax. I hate uptightiness.

Would I get offended if someone said: "This game is hetero!" certainly not. And if I was gay, that wouldn't offend me at all.

[TheAbominatrix]

I really dont feel I'm being uptight. But I dont see why it's neccesary to be used when there's a plethora of other phrases that will fit just as well.

The word 'nigger' (excuse my use of it) is used a lot between people, and while it wouldnt offend them depending on who's using it, I certainly wouldnt go around spouting it left and right.

[Mikztsu]

I wasn't saying you're uptight, silly. Yeah, it might be stupid to say "gay" of certain things, but oh well.

Yeah, I agree about word 'nigger', but I don't know why I see it different. I guess because we know it's very racistic word and people gets offended by it, but I just have never really thought that --so many-- gay people would get offended because of word 'gay'. No one's so far got offended, but yeah.

Usually I swear too much and I should cut it down.

[TheAbominatrix]

True true. I dunno what bothers me more, the scant potential to offend, or just that it looks so bad on a message board. One of my pet peeves is people who cant think of anything better to say, I guess.

I could say a few 'gay' things about your signature though, but we'll leave it at that

[Mr. Graves]

I don't we should let PC-ness strict freedom of speech, but that's me. At any rate, I don't think it's a big deal. People should look at content of what's being said before getting pissed or whatever. I don't see the big deal.......

[TheAbominatrix]

It does depend on the context, but like the examples I pointed out above, it doesnt seem really neccesary, ya know? Stupid, even.

And I do hope I'm not coming a cross as being angry or anything about this, just to clarify before I head off to sleep.

[Mikztsu]

Originally posted by TheAbominatrix
I could say a few 'gay' things about your signature though, but we'll leave it at that

Vincent Kennedy McMahon happens to be most masculine manly man and straightest person on this planet.

[Psychotic]

In my Eng Lang lessons, we did language and discrimination of marginalized groups. In fact, the word 'nigger' was originally just another word to describe that kind of person, and wasn't meant offensively, until small-minded people used it in that way.

It's the same for the word 'gay', really. It was originally used as a describing word for homosexuals (And still is, actually, as the homosexuals I know use it to describe themselves), but now idiots (Usually school children) use it as an insult and so it has taken on these negative connotations.

It's a shame language is being ruined in this way, really.

[Mikztsu]

Blame on South Park. <3

[m4tt]

The RO server I play on is full of immature little kids who use "gay" as every other word, so you can bet it's very annoying.

I think it shows how intelligent they are, if they can't think of a better word to use. "That's GAY!"