The Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services (iSMSS) at the University of Alberta launched NoHomophobes.com in July to track the usage of anti-gay language on Twitter, including “Faggot,” “So gay,” “No homo,” and “dyke.” In the short time the tracker has been active, it has found the word “Faggot” over 2.5 million times, an average of nearly 1 million times per month, or over 10 million times a year.
Dr. Kristopher Wells, Associate Director for iSMSS, responds to the data collected so far:
WELLS: We never imagined the scale of casual homophobia that actually exists on social media. The use of homophobic language remains one of the few socially acceptable forms of discrimination in our society and make no mistake, leads to isolation, bullying, beatings, and tragically youth suicide. […] Our use of casual homophobia must end. We are all responsible to put a stop to it. The lives of our youth, and the humanity of our society depends upon it.
The campaign encourages people to use the #nohomophobes hashtag on Twitter to respond to such negative language, and to “challenge their friends, colleagues, or family members who use it.”
Awful
We are not there yet… Living in The Netherlands, a very liberated country for gay men and women. But time has turned back and lots of gays are in the closet again. Shame…
We will be there for the men to meet us in Canada so they will be in Canada to meet the other men too.We will all to have fun together at the sex party so we will bring the condoms with us to the sex party to be safe always.
And how many of these people are gay people calling each other faggots. it’s just like the AfroAmericans calling each other the “N” word. Don’t know when the word became derogatory (must have been asleep). Don’t mind being called a fag as I am one.
Exactly, behrwpg. It would be interesting to see how many of these “faggot/dyke” references came from gay men and women themselves — I’ll bet more than I/we/you think.
Remember, not so long ago, on this very site, there was a debate about the appropriateness of gay men using gay slurs among themselves. While I spoke out against it, there were an awful lot of men who didn’t see anything wrong with it — and even embraced the idea.
I don’t imagine much has changed in a few short months. So let’s not be so quick to get our jockstraps in a twist over something that may be our own fault in the first place.
Age-old queer-baiting continues even tho we’ve made progress. The U.S. is still a sexually-repressed place and homophobia is only one aspect of condemning sexuality. And it crops up in a society that insists on distinctive male and female roles. And we’re feared and hated because straights think we’re muddying the waters of gender behavior. Now that lots of us have achieved privileges of masculinity – respect, a good job, legal and economic superiority) the only thing left for straights is to yell “Faggot.” Hell, like behrwpg wrote, I call myself queer and fag to trivialize all the bullshit.
It is interesting to click on the link to the main site. There they show the live tweets with the words in context. By volumn, tweeting is largely a 30 YO and under phenomenon as evidenced as well by the young pics that accompany the tweets. As we enter the final stages of the election cycle, it is interesting to see that this age demographic that was so critical to electing President Obama last election; that is so publically supportive of gay rights; is so politically correct to paint anything to the right of center as being inherently anti-gay is clearly the dominant group using these words so casually and so often in a derogatory way. The hypocrisy is deafening. They are all show and no integrity of convictions. If this is how they behave among themselves when they perceive the public won’t see them, how much better is the lot of gays in the formative years of high school and college? The adult body and more importantly the mindset are largely set by the time the’re twenty-five, so how is this generation better? It reminds you of H.L. Menkin’s wry definition of conscience: It’s that little voice that’s telling you someone is watching”. Unless this next generation starts to practice what they preach in their hearts, minds and actions….gay rights will only continue forward at a glacial pace.
I would never use that word. I don’t agree that its on the same level as using the N word, because that was first created as a politically correct term back in the day and then turned negative very quickly, and is now commonly used by black people, but faggot, in the bible, is a term used for a person who’s soul is destined for eternal damnation, and used to fuel the fires in hell. Its literal translation is a bundle of sticks used for burning or a cigarette, so I very much disagree that it’s on the same level. When someone calls me a faggot I feel like they’re view of me is a guy who deserves to be burned alive. We all know that shit still happens to gay people in communist countries. I’ve never had any of my gay friends call me a faggot, just the people that hate me.
Thanks for sharing, behairy and Falcon0507. Well said, both of you.