I’ve heard this sentiment that it is immoral a lot on the internet, and I would like to hear more about it. It feels intuitively correct to me, but I would like to hear the reasoning behind it.

Examples to further the title's meaning
  • Calling someone ‘queer’ to mean they are weird, but not in a way intended as disparaging to those who are LGBT(Q+).
Not Examples

Discussion questions:

  • How does this factor into meanings of words fading away?
    • Does it still pack the same “punch” after it no longer is commonly used as a pejorative?
      • If not, at what point is it generally considered okay to use?
  • How does this differ/compare with reclamation?
Some potential reasoning that I've thought of on my own, feel free to discuss.
  • Bad actors can piggyback off of the use as a negative to help condemn the original target group.
  • It may directly harm the group, by them (also knowing the original context) coming into contact with it and causing/enabling self-hate.
    • This may apply irregardless of if they know it was intended as non-disparaging to them or not, but this is just speculation based off of my similar experiences.

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I apologize for any personal bias within this comment, I tried my best to limit it but I am fallible.

Though I would like a discussion in the comments, please refrain from insults and inflammatory statements towards your fellow lemmings, despite the hot topic. /srs

  • @[email protected]
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    9 months ago

    These two examples are quite different, I think.

    Gay was not originally a slur, AFAIK. It was adopted as a less clinical descriptor by gay people, especially gay men (again, AFAIK). There have been concerted efforts to make it into a slur and it is often used in a derogatory fashion, but it does not have a pre-history of being used as a slur.

    Queer is the opposite. It was used as a slur and it is a rare example of successful reclamation of a word. A slogan in the 1980s on Gay Pride protests was “We’re here, we’re queer, we’re fabulous, get used to it”. At the time, queer was very much a slur so the chant had a bite that you wouldn’t hear in it today.

    • Hucklebee
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      29 months ago

      Wasn’t gay “fun” back in the day? As in, “I’m having a gay old time”

      Non-native, so don’t know much about the history.

      • @[email protected]
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        19 months ago

        Yes. I never said any different. It was adopted as a descriptor by gay men, not bigots trying to denigrate them.

        • Hucklebee
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          29 months ago

          Oh, my comment was more of an honest followup question about the language, not an attempt to attack the validity of your comment. I Didn’t mean to come across that way.