Posts
The technology blog Ars Technica had a homophobic posting last month. I know it happened a little while ago, but it illustrates an important point.
From that 8/3/09 posting:
Hidden gay slur, search terms, get campaign site blacklisted
US Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison is running for governor of Texas, but her new campaign website has already managed to get itself blocked from Yahoo and Google. Stuffing a site with 2,000+ hidden search terms, including "rick perry gay," is a good way to get the wrong kind of attention.
The idea that saying someone is gay is a "slur" is based on the homophobic notion that there is something wrong with being gay, which is absolutely ridiculous.
There may be some limited tolerance for lgbt people in this society, but this shows how casual heterosexism permeates the media, even in the disproportionately queer tech field.
We still have a long way to go before we are equal in this society.
There is, as I type, a link to an article about some UK footballer whose career was almost "ruined" from gay rumors. Whenever this comes up, it does nothing but point out the complainer's own homophobia. I think Queen Latifah is the only person who said anything constructive about the gay rumors that surround her - that her personal life was her life and every one should butt out. She might not be tripping over herself to waive her flag but she isn't whining that being called gay was ruining her life.
A slur is all in how you perceive it. For instance, I use the term Republican as a derogatory term...