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Joyous, Homo or Lame?

I know I am coming in a bit late in the debate but I just heard something on radio 4 that reminded me of it. I also saw a few placards of protest produced by Stonewall at Pride and politicians talked about it at the rally.

About a month ago, one of the BBC's presenters, Chris Moyles, got under fire for calling a ringtone "gay". The BCC is supporting this choice of word saying that the word has now a new meaning of "lame", "rubbish".

Does that mean that we can say that Moyles is gay (because, in my book, he is certainly rubbish) without the risk of being sued? Does Tom Cruise know about this?

Some people were quick to voice their initial distaste at the loss of the original meaning of the word (as "joyous") and tried to minimise the whole thing by saying that this was just another step in the constant evolution of language. This is not however an innocuous or benign one.

The new use of the word (by teenagers) is a direct result of homophobia and should not be ratified by what we must unfortunately recognise as figures of influence with the young. Does that mean that mister Moyles is going to start talking of niggers pretexting that the word is being used by young black men (following the example of hip hop artists) in an attempt of re-appropriation? I am pretty sure that this would not be as easily permitted.

This is not the first time that the BBC is accused of being homophobic.

This episode is another proof of the fact that the LGBT community is the last minority group which it is still socially acceptable, and sometimes even encouraged to attack.


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