Gay vs. Homosexual: The Battle over Words
Stacy Harp, now writing for Renew America, has an interesting opinion piece rolling around the web titled “Language does matter when it comes to homosexuals“. She writes this time about how gay advocates prefer the word “gay” over the word “Homosexual”. The basic argument she makes is that those with same sex attractions are homosexual, not gay. She touts over and over in the article about how gays and lesbian desires are all about “SEX”, but that view is pretty short sighted and superficial.
The bottom line is that the truth is that a person who has sexual attraction to a person of their same gender is a homosexual. It is about sexual desires and what the homosexual activists and media want to tell you is that it has nothing to do with sexual behavior or desires. Don’t fall for their language trap by using the word gay or lesbian. Because there is nothing “gay” about being homosexual. And a homosexual is a person who desires to have sexual relations with someone of their same gender.
The real issue here is that Stacy, like many people in the religious right, fail to see that homosexuality is not just about a desire for sex. It is about attractions, not just physical, but emotional attractions to members of the same sex. See, it is convenient to her argument to leave that very important part of the story out of it. She wants her readers to only see one small part of what homosexuality is about, sex. She figures if she can make it all about sex, it somehow makes gays and lesbians look just a little more evil. Also, by only focusing on the sex it removes any reference to what being gay is really about, love.
The real bottom line is that gays and lesbians are attracted to “people” of the same gender, not just for sex but emotional reasons. If it was all about sex, then gay relationships would just end in the morning after the sex, but that isn’t the case. GLBT folks don’t have just a desire for sex with someone of the same gender, but also a desire for companionship, family and love. Stacy, like many misinformed individuals in the religious right, don’t understand or just wish to ignore that gays and lesbians in committed, long term relationships are in it for love, not sex.
Another major point in this that Stacy left out is that this argument works both ways. Conservative anti-gay media outlets and anti-gay activists like Stacy prefer to use the term “homosexual” as opposed to “gay” for the same reasons that gay media does the reverse. They know they can shock and incite fear more effectively using the term “homosexual” which tends to have negative reactions, which is exactly what they want. Ms. Harp and those like her wouldn’t be as effective at invoking fear in others about homosexuality if they used the term “Gay” or “GLBT”.
Use of such terms becomes much like violence since the goal is to hurt others. If Stacy had written her article using terms like “gay” as opposed to homosexual, the same post would loose the edge of hate she is aiming it to have. The article has little to do with gay rights, she wasn’t reporting on any action or legislation, she is just picking out another thing she dislikes about gay people and writing about it so others will dislike that about gay people as well. That why I would call it hate speech rather than good writing. What other point is there to her article other than hate? What is the end purpose of her article other than having the reader have another bullet point they can use to hate gay people? Is she trying to educate people about gays? I wouldn’t think so or she would have been more accurate in her facts and given her readers the whole story. Is she really going to be so shallow as to think this is all about getting laid?
Next month, my partner and I will celebrate our 7th anniversary. It was seven years ago I was gay bashed outside a Providence, RI Club. It was my partner who took me to the hospital, stayed with me and later took me to his apartment so I wouldn’t have to go home alone with broken bones. I can honestly say our meeting, our friendship and our relationship is built in a solid diet of love, trust, companionship and fun not sex. Contrary to Stacy’s misinformation, we have a “gay” life and I mean gay in the happy way, not the homo way.
RSS 6. April 2007 (10:42)Filed under: Hate Speech, Uncategorized
