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From: sdyer@bbncc5.UUCP (Steve Dyer)
Newsgroups: net.motss
Subject: Re: Nomenclature - Gay/Homosexual/Lesbian
Message-ID: <384@bbncc5.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 15-Aug-85 12:16:34 EDT
Article-I.D.: bbncc5.384
Posted: Thu Aug 15 12:16:34 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 19-Aug-85 07:46:14 EDT
References: <3486@decwrl.UUCP> <10900001@ada-uts.UUCP>
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 30

> 
> Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the term, "Negro", is considered
> to be insulting because its actual meaning is "slave".
> 
> If that's the case, 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,
> I don't think I'd mind being called a homosexual man.  After all,
> "homosexual" means, in my own terms, "sexually prefers persons of the
> same gender," right?
> 

Both are disliked by certain people, but not because of their dictionary
meaning.  "Negro", after all, is a simple cognate via Spanish of the Latin,
"black", but its relative disuse these days comes from its association with
its earlier use by non-blacks in an overwhelmingly racist society.  In the
same way, the word "homosexual", aside from its offensiveness to linguists,
being an unwieldly juxtaposition of Greek and Latin stems, is a relic of
late 19th century attitudes about human sexuality.  It has a rather stodgy,
dusty clinicalness about it which is inappropriate for everyday use.  You might
not mind being called "heterosexual" when the occasion calls for it (as in
the rare case to identify someone as NOT-"homosexual"), but gay people end
up living with the term all day long.

There seems nothing wrong with calling people the way they wish being
called.  "Black" has replaced "negro" in most American English, and
"gay" for "homosexual" is making inroads.
-- 
/Steve Dyer
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