Can gay people say fag
Joe Jackson’s 1982 slap Real Men was the first hour I had heard gays referred to as faggots. I was just out of the closet and in my first gay partnership in London. Jackson’s lyrics about how only our friends and other gays could call us faggots was encouraging, coming as it did from a straight man singing a song just before AIDS hit.
Faggot, often-considered a slur, has been reclaimed many times over by gay men, including in a new play by Declan Greene, The Homosexuals, or “Faggots”, currently showing at the Malthouse in Melbourne. The participate looks at queer male relationships and their politics, and is apt as middle-class gay men and lesbians strife with acceptance all over again in the face of their call for marriage equality.
My friends and I called ourselves fags because it was a way of turning the abuse on its head and laughing at the straight bullies.
And in merry-old-England there was abuse: one night when departing gay club Heaven, a bunch of lads called us and our female friends “pooh jabbers”. It was graphic and offensive (“bum bandit” being a similar, anal-fixated phrase from about the same time) and it occurred to me how deeply, viscerally they hated us.
Langu
LGBTQIA+ Slurs and Slang
bog queen
Synonyms: Bathsheba (composition between bathroom and Sheba to make a name reminiscent of the Queen of Sheba), Ghost (50s, ghost, because they wander the corridors of the bathroom).
Gay slur aimed at hairdresser 'not homophobic' - French ruling
In the reasoning, the tribunal said: "If we put it in the context of the field of hairdressing, the council considers that the term 'faggot' used by a manager cannot be considered as a homophobic insult, because hair salons regularly employ lgbtq+ people, notably in female hairdressers, and that poses no difficulty at all."
It agreed the synonyms was insulting, but it fell short of being considered discriminatory.
Social media users have called the ruling scandalous. One gay rights group called the tribunal "brainless", warning it was trivialising homophobia.
Reporter Mathieu Brancourt, who tweeted the tribunal's finding, external, wrote: "You are a hairdresser, you fetch called a faggot, and that's OK because hairdressers are often gay right. Thanks, tribunal."
Ms Khomri told RTL radio that, though she was not familiar with the details of the case, she found the ruling "deeply shocking".
The employee was awarded €5,000 in damages ($5,700; £4,000) but will appeal the tribunal's decision.
The "F-Slur": Where It Comes From & How Some Are Reclaiming It
Content warning (CW): The text below contains the use of slurs.
The reality is downcast but true: "Faggot” is, and has often been, used to describe LGBTQ2S+ people negatively, particularly the feminine ones.
It doesn't matter if you're:
- a 14-year-old teen with an effeminate walk
- a 50-year-old man who likes to paint his nails
- or somebody who just likes dressing however the hell they want
"Faggot” is a cruel catchall used to describe, typically, any male who is gay, soft-spoken, or who doesn't fit the stereotypically (toxic) definition of masculinity.
"Real men" nap with women, curse, yell, play sports, never tear, are always ready for a fight, and don't wear nail polish, makeup, lots of jewelry, or anything that calls into question their masculinity, right?
Books can, and have, been written about the genesis of this narrow-minded view of manhood. Its employ in the American English language can actually be traced back to the early 1900s, but as with so many other words, its true origins are a bit of a mystery.
Thankfully, the resiliency of LGBTQ2S+