Please help me understand this

[skippythwndrdog]

Ireally want to know. Do gays consider 'homosexual' a derogatory term or is this just courtroom posturing?

<snip> When Mike Johnson, a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund, which represents conservative politicians and "pro-family" organizations, called Rawls a "homosexual," Rawls charged at Johnson. Rawls' voice rose and his face turned red, and he approached Johnson, pointed his finger at him and labeled him a "homophobe."

"I am not a homosexual," Rawls angrily told Johnson. "I am a gay man."

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-2/109247735210280.xml

[devlin radiset]

1. it's the 'scientific' term..

Full disclosure: I am heterosexual

sounds to me like posturing, but he could truly be offended..doesn't mean he has a real reason to be offended...

words morph over time...gay did not use to mean homosexual..now it does..I have heard of complaints about teens using gay as an all puropose derogatory word...that's the way it goes..homosexuals 'adopted' the word gay, now some teens are adopting it from them

[LDS Jock]

2. I don't consider it offensive

and I'm gay.

[Guy Fawkes]

3. It's most likely the way that it was said...

I can't see anyone being upset if he had simply asked "Are you _______ a homosexual?"