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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