Word Usage

Frankly, I'm a hardass about words and their uses. It's a political thing. Not a PC thing. A political thing. The phrase "Politically Correct" is for jackasses and I don't care much for it. That being said, however, we do need to recognize that oppression in society reflects itself in myriad ways, one of them being language and accepted uses. Epithets don't materialize from thin air--only jackasses think that--they have palpable connections to racism, sexism and homophobia.

This is, in effect, a response to my first posted comment from "anonymous." And I must be honest with you, my reading audience (whoever you are), the comment was a plant. Yes, it's true. I saw it posted on another person's Blog and I made someone I know post it here for the sole purpose that I could write a response. You may call that asinine, but I call it better planning than you are used to seeing. My comments here are solely regarding use of the word "gay," but translate to many other words, especially epithets that are now in common use (i.s. "bitch").

It pisses me off when people want to say something is stupid or they don't like it or whatever and they say, "That is so gay." Does the commentator really mean, for example, that the jelly bracelets I worked so to combine in a weblike fashion on my wrist resemble a same-sex relationship? No, he or she does not. When I point this out, the usual response is, "That's not what I mean." Well, if you don't mean it, then don't say it. Say what you mean.

Let me ask you a question: When you play darts do you aim for the floor underneath? No, you aim for the board and most probably, the bullseye.

We should do the same for language. To refer to something you find idiotic as "gay," you then, by association, demean everyone who is LGBT. The reason for this is simple: After Stonewall in 1967, the movement for gay rights sprang into full bloom. Majorities of people fighting against second-class citizenship wanted to pick a word to define the movement as positive, to pull it out of its dark, depressing corner, to help people not feel ashamed of who they are or who they love. It was a bright, shining moment in history. This was the purpose of choosing the word "gay" and having it as a banner for the group Gay Liberation Front. I'm abbreviating history, but I hate writing and want to be succint. For people to now demean a word and a movement that came to mean so much for so many, says two things:

1) It shows how far we have moved away from those militant, fighting-for-civil-rights days. So much so, we are now faced with the same-sex marriage movement being scapegoated for Kerry's losing presidential bid.

2) Homophobia has crept back into the mainstream as legitimate and accepted, even though it is defended as benign attempts at humor or playfulness or economic phraseology.

Therefore, it is up to those of us who believe that same-sex couples deserve the right to marry, that LGBT persons shouldn't be beat to death for whom they choose to love or how they choose to live, that anyone should be able to adopt a child, that everyone should be able to visit his/her partner in the hospital and administer care, to cleanly break with such word usage. You aren't winning anyone over to those positive, forward-thinking causes by making negative, backward-thinking comments. You are only legitimizing hate and institutionalized oppression with which you don't agree.

And if you're not for civil rights, then you are a jackass and you shouldn't be reading my Blog.