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- #81
While "gay" can have multiple meanings in today's society, whether it simply be "bad" or referring to someone's sexual orientation, people need to remember that the reason its meaning has turned into "bad" in the first place was because that's how homosexuality were seen and judged decades ago (probably less). Thankfully, that is no longer the case with people being more outward and accepting nowadays. Yeah, it may be used to mean bad in our current culture, but that meaning came about in the first place because being gay was bad all those times ago. Some people may find offense in that, especially if they had friends or family who experienced that all those years ago. So no matter what your intended use of it is, it's still tied to its past.
It's not right to tell people not to say it entirely - which BG isn't doing, for those who missed the posts made by the staff - it's the fact that saying gay can be easily avoided by simply typing another word. It's not hard. No one's taking anything away from you. What will you lose by using, say, dumb instead of gay? Nothing. It's fine to use it in the proper context, but remember why it has that meaning in the first place.
Words can to a whole damn lot. Just because mental pain - or pain from words - isn't visible like a physical wound is, it doesn't mean it isn't there or doesn't mean as much.
Now, I'm some preacher who hates curse words or completely disagrees with today's usage of gay, I'm just saying to remember that you're not someone else. If words don't hurt you, great, but other people find words more hurtful than being punched. There's two different kinds of pain, emotional and physical. It's not only the latter.
I don't think it's not okay to punch someone but if someone is insulted by the word gay, then just tell them to ignore it since they're "only words". It doesn't work that way.
No one's stopping you from saying it in real life as that's impossible for any of us here; but while you're on BG, at least try to use those precious couple of seconds that are so important to your life to rethink what you're typing. Bad has as many letters as gay, anyway.
It's not right to tell people not to say it entirely - which BG isn't doing, for those who missed the posts made by the staff - it's the fact that saying gay can be easily avoided by simply typing another word. It's not hard. No one's taking anything away from you. What will you lose by using, say, dumb instead of gay? Nothing. It's fine to use it in the proper context, but remember why it has that meaning in the first place.
Words can to a whole damn lot. Just because mental pain - or pain from words - isn't visible like a physical wound is, it doesn't mean it isn't there or doesn't mean as much.
Now, I'm some preacher who hates curse words or completely disagrees with today's usage of gay, I'm just saying to remember that you're not someone else. If words don't hurt you, great, but other people find words more hurtful than being punched. There's two different kinds of pain, emotional and physical. It's not only the latter.
I don't think it's not okay to punch someone but if someone is insulted by the word gay, then just tell them to ignore it since they're "only words". It doesn't work that way.
No one's stopping you from saying it in real life as that's impossible for any of us here; but while you're on BG, at least try to use those precious couple of seconds that are so important to your life to rethink what you're typing. Bad has as many letters as gay, anyway.
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