Reply #94: oh I have to disagree, call somebody 'gay' who isn't and watch the reaction. [View All]

[Didereaux]

Their are a lot of us who do NOT see it as disparaging, merely an accepted reference term, albeit I feel it unnecessary to determine a perons sexual orientation if I or they are not planning on striking up such a relationship. Whether a word was disparaging and now is not, is no different than one which may not have been and now is. My point in all this is simply to point out that a words meaning must be determined both in the context of what is said, and in the context of its time. that is all.

That such logic seems openly, evenly blatantly apparent to me and many, many many others is why I get upset with a few who insist on extreme interpretations of these things. One more example and to me the most abhorrent of all: the word nigger. I absolutely will not tolerate its use within my earshot, home or public. I know full well it is derived from the word negro and in fact a common regional corruption of its its proper pronunciation, BUT it also evolved into one of the most loathsome derogatory words in American language. Yet, I did not forbid my boy from reading 'Huckleberry Finn' or 'Tom Sawyer', because Twain never used it in its derogatory manner, only as an everyday word that in fact pointed out his tolerance and others intolerance of the african slaves and their offspring. If Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson or some sonovabitch lowlife rapper uses it today I have the same reaction aaaas I do when one of these local bubbas uses it...very vociferous response and not in proper english but good old fashioned Anglo-Saxon. Few are left wondering how I stand on the issue.

So you see, I am not the intolerant one on these boards at all. It might even be argued that I might have one of the broader 'tents' in the region.