As of 6:40 pm
At 6:40 pm the word faggot at been tweeted almost 17,000 times. That number astounds me. On top of having the the number of tweets, they also post the tweets as they're coming in. This results in a never-ending stream of hate and negativity with very few tweets not using these words in a derogatory way. I believe that this is the point of mirrors, show us exactly what's there, not sugar coat things, even if we don't like what we see. I don't like what I see.
I watched the stream for about ten minutes and saw maybe two tweets that were not using these words in a derogatory way, this shows me that we have a problem. People think that bullying is only when someone is personally attacking another person, and in some of these tweets there was a lot of blatant bullying. I view all the misuse of these words as a form of bullying and there is very little being done to stop it.
A good friend of mine pointed out to me, what if someone who was at a very low point in their life stumbled across this website? What if someone, someone who felt so terrible about themselves, for who they were, found this website that used all these words to describe what they are as insults? We justify calling someone a faggot by saying things like, "well he's not really gay - I mean he's just an idiot or weird or stupid." We justify people calling a negative situation gay by saying things like, "well they didn't mean it."
What do people mean? When you're using homophobic language to describe negative situations you're saying exactly what you mean. Your words say that being homosexual is something negative, whether you think that's what you're saying or not. I'm by no means innocent of this, it wasn't until the last couple of years I realized how detrimental this is - for many different words. I have made it a habit to check my language before I open my mouth.
It needs to not be okay for this language to be allowed. I know some of you will point out that you can't make believe accept something they don't believe in, and I agree. I can't force someone into thinking being gay is okay - nor should I want to. Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs. However, as much as you're allowed to be straight, people are allowed to be gay; if you don't approve then by all means stay straight. This falls into language, just because you are not gay does not give you the divine right to use homophobic language in a derogatory way. You have the right to choose but you also have the obligation to be a decent human.
We use sexuality as this qualifier of how good you are as a person in this day and age and it's disgusting. Even Facebook wants to know what you're interested in! Why is there such a focus on sexuality when nobody wants to know about it if it's not theirs? You're pushed to be out and proud as either straight or gay and there's this middle fault line that just gets glazed eyes and nods of "mmhhmm" as a response... Up until this year I honestly knew very little about bisexuality, asexuality, transgendered or pansexuality. And now, in modern society, in GD 2012 we still operate under, "well as long as you're not gay."
Who care who someone goes home with! Who cares who they are intimate with! I'm not in bed with you, by all means get as freaky as you want with whomever you want! I don't think a persons sexuality defines who they are - far from it. You're a person before your sexual orientation.
I realize I went on a bit of rant here, but this is something that strikes a nerve. I've seen how the use of homophobic language can and has hurt people. I don't care if you think it's right or not, if you're not going to stand for same-sex couples then at least have the decency to stand up against bullying. People are being hurt because of something that can be so easily stopped! Do you think that at least some of those people would think twice about tweeting if someone tweeted them back telling them they're hurting people? I can guarantee it.
In less than two hours the word faggot was tweeted 2179 times. The term NoHomo was tweeted 1034 times. So Gay was tweeted 848 times. And the word Dyke was tweeted 343 times. Collectively that's 4404 tweets using homophobic language and only a small number of those tweets will have anything remotely positive about them.
Are you going to be part of the solution or part of the problem?
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