2008-04-18 - 2:11 p.m.
Update From ELOFTING@HOTMAIL.COM: At the time of editing (six days after my original entry), not one single gay had responded as to whether or not it's OK to say gay. Therefore, either 100% or 0% of gays are OK with it. Whichever you prefer, I guess.
I'm being scolded by a short little man with regrettable facial hair for using the word "gay" as an adjective.
My feeling is that is not worthwhile to explain why that isn't offensive to someone who has already taken offense, so I simply apologize in the hope of being able to abandon the subject quickly.
The tiny man, however, is not satisfied.
(Here we go.)
Perhaps it was actually his desire to spark a debate about English language use. Who knows? In either case, he has picked the wrong girl to have one with. I have opinions on this subject, and I have the ability to articulate them. This guy is in trouble.
There are two gays, I tell him. Homosexual gay and lame gay. The two are seperate from each other. Vice magazine has, I think, discussed the subject. (I watch for a reaction to the mention of Vice which will an indication of whether or not we are going to have any common ground at all... He shows no signs of recognition.)
The tiny man is upset that I'm perpetuating language use that uses his sexual orientation as a synonym for lame.
But you can't aruge as though there's only one English, I tell him. You have to think about the big picture. Words have different meanings to different groups of people. And English has a lot of different groups of people using it. When I say gay, I say it because I have no problem with gays. It's completely different from when some redneck Christian zealot says it.
But if what you mean is lame, why don't just say lame?
(This is going nowhere. I wish that I could just vomit on his shoes and walk away.)
I could say lame in lots of different ways. That's the fun of this ridiculous language. It changes all the time. You could turn this whole thing upside-down right now and start calling lame things straight. That's your birth right as an English-speaker. But criticizing other people's language use is a privilege, not a right. And you don't know anything about me, so you haven't earned it. This whole conversation is a racial minority.
(I consider the novel new language use that I've just demonstrated to be the verbal equivalent to vomitting on his shoes and, at this point, walk away. But all this happened a week ago, and I'm still thinking about it, which could mean that I was wrong. Was I wrong? Is it bad to call lame things gay? I mean, I'm straight and I'm white, but I live in Northern Japan and I know how it feels to be a minority. Sometimes it feels bad. But if someone used the word Aryan in a derogatory way, I would recognize that as a joke about racism, not a racist joke. Fags? Can you hear me? Is it gay to call things gay wonders ELOFTING@HOTMAIL.COM.)
