Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83 SMI; site emacs.uucp Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!cca!emacs!joe From: joe@emacs.uucp (Joe Chapman) Newsgroups: net.motss Subject: Re: Nomenclature - Gay/Homosexual/Lesbian Message-ID: <140@emacs.uucp> Date: Fri, 16-Aug-85 18:19:09 EDT Article-I.D.: emacs.140 Posted: Fri Aug 16 18:19:09 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 19-Aug-85 21:38:24 EDT References: <3486@decwrl.UUCP>, <10900001@ada-uts.UUCP> Organization: CCA Uniworks, Wellesley, MA Lines: 24 > Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the term, "Negro", is considered > to be insulting because its actual meaning is "slave". From Latin nigrum, niger (black), through Spanish or Portuguese, according to the OED. > I see nothing wrong with "homosexual" as an adjective; > I don't mind being referred to as a heterosexual man, and if I were gay, ... There's some linguistic defense for the adjective when it's applied to sexual acts, in which case it means ``acts involving/between members of the same sex''. But what does it mean to refer to a same-sex person? Or a different-sex person? (Other than my mad friend Frank, of course, who tries to be of a different sex each day :-)). Of course there are worse ways to refer to gay people. My mother always tells me to watch out at the laundromat for those ``intellectual fags.'' I assure her that I do... -- -- Joseph Chapman decvax!cca!emacs!joe CCA Uniworks, Inc. emacs!joe@cca-unix.ARPA 20 William St. Wellesley, MA 02181 (617) 235-2600