That's so gay.

Last night at my father's house, I walked to the family room to see what my step-sister and her friend were doing.

I was about to round a corner when I realized that her friend -- these are college girls, mind you -- was explaining my sister that calling someone "gay" or "faggot" was supposed to be an insult with added punch.  My sister is the sort to get upset if she hears someone abused. 

Naturally, I stopped in my tracks.  I wish I had been in on the first words of the conversation.  I did not want to leap to any particular conclusion about how the subject got started.  It did remind me that certain neanderthals lack the vocabulary and wit to think of anything better to call someone "gay."

This "name-calling" is harmful.  It is at the root of homophobia.  As much as we like to think that society is beginning to recognize that homosexuals and people of various orientations pay taxes and raise children, society is still a cruel and frightened bunch.

Something initimidates people about people who are different.  It is either that they see the particular difference in themselves and try to rebel against it with violence and disdain, or perhaps it offends some innate drive that they don't even recognize.

My father once explained to a gay (male) friend of mine that mankind has a yearning from the collective unconscious to continue his line, to propagate the species, and that homosexuality offends that.  I think that there could be something to the thought... because hatred is not really a rational thing.

Where was I?

Oh, yeah:  Calling someone "gay" is not very specific.  There is a world of people who fit under the title but cannot be stereo-typed.  Not all gays are flamboyant paraders... very few of us are, in fact.  (But thank god for our flamboyant paraders!)  Everytime someone becomes visible, an ignoramus gets a heart. 

Why not use your mind to come up with something more specific, like "intellectual dud" or "butthead." Or "cretin" or "malcontent" or "reject."  If you wanna stab them, call them a "useless fuck."

Calling someone gay may hurt them or someone in your circle in ways that you do not realize.  To use "gay" as an insult does the same damage to the soul of the world that words like "nigger" and "retard" do.

Heck... if you are going to call people bad names, try something different and more to the point.  Words do hurt.  Impressionable people are taught to hate with words.  Words killed millions of Jews and millions of other slaughtered populations that we tend to overlook.  And hate is an evil emotion that leads to self-loathing in its possessor.

I should have turned that corner, it is the only way to change the world... but I trust my sister to do the right thing and I didn't want her to feel embarrassed by knowing I had heard.