Couple things... first off, "fag" is a word that is generally considered offensive and not something one likes to hear in polite conversation. Something akin to the n-word. You will hear some gay people use it for much the same reasons that you will hear some African American people use the n-word... to take control of the word, take ownership of it, so that it cannot be used to hurt them. My personal feeling on that is that we should not use the word because doing so "makes it okay."
As for the rest of your comments... much of what you mention has to do with community. If you desire to understand it better, we do have a closed social group here where, from time to time, we discuss issues affecting the gay community and our personal lives as well. You can look us up... we are GLBT Herpers.
*hops off soap box and departs*
Dear Lauren,
I clammed up and thought over what you'd said for awhile. Really thought long and hard about it, rather than just replying with the first thing, which inferredly is usually the wrong thing.
This morning I woke up with desirous thoughts about one of my girlfriends who's African American with some Native American blood in her, which I feel compelled to point out are also genetics I possess. (and also some Slavic Portugese Latin Gypsy blood, amongst 14 additional genetic lineages). And then I thought again of your post. I was having lesbian feelings for this wonderful woman, and considered visiting the GayBLT forum. But then I got to those forums, and wondered if I should perhaps seek counseling on the Metrosexual Herpers forum, but there wasn't one. I also couldn't help but notice there were not forums for: Caucasian Herpers, African American Herpers, Heinz57 Herpers, Passing for White Herpers, Native American Herpers, Gypsy Herpers, New Age Herpers, or Heterosexual Herpers. Then it occurred to me that the GayBLT Herpers had singled themselves out of the General Herpers and decided to have their own forum. But this struck me as kind of odd, because I did not believe they liked to be singled out themselves, but then there they are, singling themselves out, so the comment about taking control of a word, or in this case, an Acronymn, so it cannot be used to hurt them. And so while I had considered seeking counsel from the Lesbian community, what if my thoughts had been those of another nature-- Then I would have been even more confused. Fortunately at that moment, I got a phone call to confirm my appointment with a psychological Clinic for myself later on this week (really, no kidding).
Running in the special olympics. Even if you win, you're still retarded for doing it.
Friend Robbie, taking ownership of the phrase "Special Olympics" and using the r-word to describe persons with cognitive disabilities. My newly adopted personal feeling on that is that we should not use the word because doing so "makes it okay." One of my buddies stopped by the other day to show off his blue first place ribbon he won in the Special Olympics, he was just a normal guy like you or me, well, make that like you or someone else...Anyways, there was a tragic incident that happened to him, but he is a fully realized individual who has a full time job and is living here in our area, lives an independent life on his own. He also got himself a pet turtle at the Daytona2009. But that's besides the point. But I get where you're coming from, it is a phrase that has been seen, read, repeated often...something people have learned to say, learned to think. So while people learn to think within their little boxed in communities, groups, etc, I cannot help but to think, what if all the ways we have learned to think about ourselves is not 100% correct. If I join one of those forum groups and adopt in my brain other peoples ways of thinking things and doing things, so I can fit in with their "collective", and then later much of it turns out to be merely mirrored behavior with undertones of codependant behaviors,
oh well, it wasn't a program I designed for myself, so I am not obligated to it. Wasn't my fault I thought like that. So I can easily blow it off and insulate myself within a new collective.
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I'd like to apologize for taking ownership of all of the words I've ever used in speech and in writing. I apologize for enslaving the language I speak, and am sincerely sorry for my admittedly political incorrectness. And I also forgive everyone else who has ever taken ownership of words or phrases. God Bless Each & Every One Of You!
Warm Regards,
Dave
