Being referred to as "a gay" or "the gays"

Lex

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Placing the article "a" or "the" in front of a label really invites all of the stereotypification inherent in people's belief systems to come into play.

For example, if some says:

Naughty, you are black, can you tell me, from your experience, why you think many African Americans are having issue with ____________?

Lex, as a gay man who is also black can you decribe for me what it is like being a minority within a minority?

This is a MUCH different statement than saying:

The blacks are having issue with ______________.

Black gays experience differences as they _____________

The second statements brings with it generalizations and stereotypes that are not inherent in the first statement.

It is why a lot of people prefer "people first language." For example:

  • Person with a disability versus handicapped person (the condition should not define or limit the person)
  • students placed at risk versus at-risk students (they were not anywhere, we decided to place them in a category)
I know many will blow the issue off as one of political correctness, but syntax and semantics give words different meanings. If it were not so, our languages would not be so powerful and there would not be people whom we hold as masters of the written and spoken word.
 

prepstudinsc

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No,I prefer to call you KeShawn! :biggrin1:

LOL Everyone at church does, you might as well, too!


If only

I am in complete agreement with you. Trouble is people want to know the small details about others, and if we don`t we get them thrust apon us anyway.
I always laughed whenever i read the Daily Star in the UK( not a regular occurance but if some builder is going to leave it on the seat of the Jubilee line who am i to argue!)
You see the Star always, and i mean ALWAYS puts the age of whoever they are talking about either just before or just after the persons name. For those of you in the UK that dont believe me, go check it out.
It seems to be inherent in them to let us know how old the rest of the world is wether we care or not. The same is true of anything that singles a person out as different. Be they Blonde,tall,fat,gay or anything else that may strike them out from the crowd. The press loves a noun.

If I'm talking to you, I can see that you are a blond, or have green eyes, or are Asian, or whatever. Certain adjectives don't really apply when one is talking face to face. I can't see if a person is deaf, or if they are Presbyterian, or if they are vegetarian, but who cares. It's just a very small part of who that person is. If I want to know if someone is divorced, or if they are Zoroastrian, I would bring that sort of thing up in a conversation. That is part of getting to know a person, but for someone to say, "my friend Ke'Shawn is a blind, blond headed, Muslim who's gay and a vegan" that labels them and sets a tone that I don't want to know right from the beginning. I want to make my own opinion of a person once I meet them, I don't want the labels to define who that person is before meeting. That's my beef with labels. There's an old adage that says "don't judge a book by its cover" and that's what a label does.

It's even worse when people allow themselves to be labeled and feel that they have to fit the stereotype associated with the label. I know some blond people who feel they have to act dumb, I know some black people who think that they have to act ghetto, and I know gay people who think that they have to act flamboyant. If that's not you, don't let the label define how you act or think you must be to conform to how society views you.
 

yogo

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I would never refer to a gay person in this manner, I don't know (apart from the Little Britain show) where is came from as has already been mentioned. It is perhaps the human nature of grouping thing and people together. Which then starts to run the old way of "I don't like Americans" perhaps just because one or two have been unpleasant, or blacks, gays, etc..

I think it a very rude way of addressing people or cultures etc in this manner.

We are all individuals and can be gay, straight, bi but are not a gay, a straight or a bi
.