Why are people still crazy over the word 'GAY'?
451114
Religion, religion, religion. The word 'GAY' is and always will be a word that gets them ranting. Sad but true.
869621
they're not. a few people who are gay hide their orientation . By the way , he was accused, it hasn't been proven. Any fool can accuse.
575122
I'm gay and I'm not offended by the word itself. When it is used as a descriptive term for my sexual predisposition I am not bothered by it. When it is used as a derogatory insult then I am bothered, but I also consider that the person using it that way is an uninformed individual who probably has some serious insecurities concerning his/her own sexuality. I feel sorry those people and their sexual partners. \n\nSincerely,\nTerry
1056007
why do people assume that calling somebody 'gay' is a bad thing?\n\nit's the same as calling somebody 'straight'. i never saw anybody get offended by that...\n\nmore importantly: why would YOU pressure somebody to come out of the closet? In this ignorant world coming out of the closet is a hard thing to do, unfortunately. I have a number of gay friends who had to go through the hard period right before coming out, and had to live with the condemnment of people after they came out.\n\ni'm not easily offended by questions, but this one is just way out of line.
1183689
Homophobia is a fear/belief really, much easier changed than sexuality.  I've known people in my life that were very homophobic but changed their views after getting to know a few gay people.   I guess that's the secret, the closest there is to a cure, letting people with those attitudes get to know as people instead of remaining a faceless avatar to them.   As a gay male as much as I would love for everyone to universally accept us, we don't have the right to tell someone what they can or can't believe.  When dealing with a people like this it's ok to be assertive, but I refuse to gve them even an iota of power over me by letting their words hurt me.
1064952
I don't know who that is. If he was generally in a good mood, then yes, he could be termed as 'gay', which can also be used as a synonym for happy. If you are referring to his sexual orientation, since you phrased it in the past tense using the word "was", what difference does it make now?
325819
Really, really, freakin', absolutely, pathetically, why-hell-is-it-in-the-Olympics gay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!\n\n\np.s. For the person who thought it was sad for you to use the word "gay": the word "gay" has about three usages right now. It either means "happy", "homosexual", or "dumb". The English language and it's slang words always constantly change or have more than one meaning. That's because it's a "living" language.
1139122
Because they think they are right and don't have respect for the beliefs of others.  You know, cuz a 2,000 year old book say to do this and do that, yet some of the "rules" are ignored while others are enforced.  Funny thing is, think about what the word gay meant just 50 years ago.  Think about how they spoke during Shakespeare's time almost 500 years ago.  Then they want to talk about interpreting something written almost 2,000 years ago?  Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.  Ok, then.
19769
The long answer:\n\nGay was a term that was appropriated by homosexual people in the 1970's too mean homo.  They wanted a word that had positive connotations because they wanted to remove the stigma that was associated with being a homosexual. \n\nQueer was a word used by homophobic people to sander homosexuals.  It originally meant strange, odd, or out of place, but was taken and used to specifically attack homosexual individuals in the same way that the N-word was used to attack African Americans.  In the mid-late '90s queer was appropriated by gays who were looking to remove the stigma associated with the word, much the same way black people (and many other minorities) have appropriated the N-word, and use it in everyday speech to remove some of the power that is associated with it.\n\nThe idea is this.  If I use the word queer in my everyday life to describe myself, some bigoted straight white guy who tries to use the word to hurt me fails miserably.  If, however, it's a word that has a deep stigma, a word that only he is privileged enough to use when he's verbally attacking me, the word holds much more power, and the attack is far more potent.  If we minorities, whether we be gay, black, or whatever, decide to take those words back and own them ourselves, we take much of the power away from their previous "owners".\n\n\nThe short answer:\n\nThey're spelled differently.  I use them both interchangeably to describe myself if people ask...
985193
Why use 'gay' as a bad thing?  I'm not gay, but I have gay friends, and it upsets me that people always use the word gay to describe some bad or annoying...just stop.
1054667
People just have to understand that 10% of people are gay.\nIt's the same as a certain percentage of the population have blue eyes.\nHomophobics are scared that being gay may become compulsory; probably because homophobes believe that  heterosexuality should be compulsory.
528391
Although I'm a firm believer in freedom of speech I find it quite disturbing that people don't have a problem with using this word in front of anybody, at any time.\nIt negates any sign of intelligence that you would not find it in your vocabulary to communicate disgust, anger and other emotions without resorting to a word that literally means fornicate or sexual intercourse. Aren't our brains a little more evolved than that?\nIf you want to use it, you have the right, but other people have the right NOT to hear it everywhere!
391747
people are straight so they can put there genitals to proper use and procreate. gay people are really just perverted. i mean check it for urself. most of them are bisexual. they are just caught up in sex mentally(hey mindless there is no way two men together makes sense. that is not waht those body parts are made for. i dont mean to be the cause of any hate crimes but if someone can show me the logic of that then fine.)
730481
A common belief among people is that different is wrong. Like if one person does not fit perfectly into the little box that is considered to be "normal" then there is something wrong with you. For instance, being gay to many people is "wrong" but when asked why the best they can come up with is because it is wrong. It is not wrong it is just different than what they are used too.
1135520
Good question.  Probably when people stopped using the word "gay" to mean "happy and carefree", and started to use the word "happy" and "carefree."
821212
I think part of it may be to keep others from questioning their sexuality--in other words, it's their own insecurity about how others perceive them. To me it seems that heterosexual men are very concerned that they not be seen as gay, even by accident. Because two women together is often more accepted by heterosexual society (a popular heterosexual male fantasy), I think you won't hear women say this as often. Also, I think women are generally more gay tolerant. Perhaps that's another reason they don't feel the need to separate themselves verbally by the "I'm not" tag.
390591
Partly I'd say it's the politically correct nature that society has been taking since the early nineties.  There was previously a huge social stigma and a lot of hatred directed at people who were/are not heterosexual.  While this has lessened as of late, that doesn't mean it has gone away and many people who fall under the GLBT category feel especially targetted and quick to become hostile.  In my opinion it's a placating tactic to devote an entire sub-group to such issues, but they are very specific in a broad sense (just a bit contradictory I know) and many people experience them.  This facilitates the need for a special category being listed.  However, to be perfectly fair they'd need to make a group under the category for every lifestyle and flavour of relationship.  Thankfully, life isn't fair, and there aren't hundreds of sub listings.