[bit.listserv.gaynet] 'Homosexual'

POSTMASTER@MITVMA (Undetermined origin c/o Postmaster) (02/08/90)

        Hi all.  I have a really simple question, but it's bugging me.

        I got flamed on another list for using the term "homosexual"
to refer to gay men and lesbians in general, being told that the word
was "oppressive."

        Now, I've been out for two years now and involved in lgb issues
since then but I've *never* heard anyone object to the word "homosexual"
except in that it sounds clinical (which, admittedly it does).  Does
anyone else object to this word?  I'd also like to know WHY anyone does,
if so, because the fellow complaining to me has not provided any sort
of real explanation of it.  Anyone out there able to help?  Thanks in
advance...

                                                --Bill

TIMBUCK@VTVM1.CC.VT.EDU (Tim) (02/08/90)

I personally don't object to the term (though I agree that it sounds
rather clinical, and I prefer the term "gay" for that reason).  I have
heard of other people objecting to it though, for purely linguistic
reasons.  The word "homosexual" is actually an adjective (i.e.
"homosexual man") rather than a noun.  Then again, one could argue that
the word "gay" is also an adjective.

Tim Buck
Va. Tech, Blacksburg

POSTMASTER@MITVMA (Undetermined origin c/o Postmaster) (02/08/90)

>I have
>heard of other people objecting to it though, for purely linguistic
>reasons.  The word "homosexual" is actually an adjective (i.e.
>"homosexual man") rather than a noun.  Then again, one could argue that
>the word "gay" is also an adjective.

        Agreed.  I tend to say "gay men and lesbians" whenever
possible, but sometimes slip and say "gays and lesbians" instead,
for which I always hit myself over the head :-)

                                                --Bill

LUTHER%MTUS5.BITNET@MITVMA.MIT.EDU (David B. O'Donnell) (02/08/90)

In-Reply-To: Message of Wed, 7 Feb 90 13:18:12 EST
             from <TIMBUCK@VTVM1.CC.VT.EDU>

Just my personal bias, but I prefer having 'gay' used as an adjective when1
referring to me, too.  I am not _a_ gay, I am a gay _man_.  Interestingly
I'd never heard that homosexual is indeed purely an adjective (like gay)
but then I guess I never thought of it.

Virtually,
David B. O'Donnell <LUTHER@MTUS5.BITNET>
                   <LUGOS@MTUS5.BITNET>
Owner/Moderator, Belief-L ListServe Distribution List
ECLOS Developer/Distributor
_____
... Any resemblance between the above views and those of my employer,
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The question of the existence of views in the absence of anyone to hold
them is left as an exercise for the reader.  The question of the
existence of the reader is left as an exercise for the second god
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