IMHO, I think most people who use the word that way are simply immature, not necessarily one who hates. It does indeed reinforce negative stereotypes, but calling it “hate speech” doesn’t apply in most cases, I think. There’s a young guy I work with who uses gay=bad a lot, and I usually make fun of him for it. My impression is that doesn’t hate people because they are gay, though.
I love this debate. Every single freaking time it comes up, I love it. It rocks. Really.
Ask any gay person, “is it offensive to use the term gay as a synonym for bad?” Almost all of them will say yes.
If you know something is offensive to thousands, hundreds of thousands of people out there, why continue to do it? The word has dozens of synonyms that won’t offend anybody; use a different word.
Hurting people bad. Don’t hurt people.
ok, my apologies for that comment, it was out of place. If it helps, it wasn’t specifically about this comment. It’s a build up of frustration from just about every single post I’ve ever seen her make. Would have posted in the pit, but that doesn’t seem to do much good.
Anyway, sorry. Knee jerk reaction. I would say that I won’t do it again, but that would probably be a lie. ::shrug::
For the record, I think there’s a difference between “offensive” and “hate speech”. I agree that it’s offensive, but I think quite often this use of the word is due to ignorance, and not hate.
That’s all true, but it’s not what the OP asked. The OP asked if it was HATE SPEECH.
“Hate Speech” is a very different thing from “offensive language” and in some places it’s a criminal offense. Here in Canada, hate speech can get you charged with a crime and put in prison. I think it’s important to make a distinction between hate speech and offensive language.
“Gay as lame” isn’t hate speech. It may be offensive and bigoted, but “hate speech” implies speech that is meant to incite and promote hatred, not just a word that has a bigoted origin. Hate speech does not even require the use of offensive language. For instance,
“Jews are rats who are trying to destroy the white race”
… is most definitely hate speech, but there aren’t any Bad Offensive Words in that sentence. On the other hand,
“This video game is totally gay”
…includes an offensive word, but it’s not hate speech.
Forgive me if I didn’t consider this to be a request for a clarification on the legal definition of hate speech. Since the debate had turned into a discussion of whether “gay=lame” is offensive, I thought I’d address that point.
As to whether it’s hate speech, that’d be a matter of context, and for a court of law to decide in individual cases.
As a fan of the English language, I wish its modern evolutions were a little more sophisticated, but that’s as much as I care to ponder the question.