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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Edwarda who wrote (77208)	4/8/2000 10:01:00 AM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

We used that usage when I was in highschool in the 70's. I don't know when it began, but it's a fairly old usage and obviously homophobic in origin. I'm sure it makes gay people uncomfortable, but that's probably the point of the word. I see more tolerance among kids out here, in our area, for both racial and sexual differences. And at the elementary school level the amount of taunting and cruelty has dramatically decreased- schools here no longer have any tolerance for that- whereas once it was a "kids will be kids" mentality, now the schools realize real psychological harm can be done (and they can get sued) so there is a completely different atmosphere

To: Edwarda who wrote (77208)	4/8/2000 1:29:00 PM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 108807

One does not dispassionately lay out the facts in these matters, and say "make up your mind", without conveying the sense that the result is of less concern than the process. This sort of value- neutral education on matters like drugs and sexual promiscuity does more harm than good. On the other hand, persuasiveness always proceeds from premises that will be accepted, and if you try to persuade of something in a manner that seems ludicrous to your interlocutor, he tends to turn off to anything more that you have to say. Trying to push attitudes that are too far different from those learned at home, instead of developing from a comfortable starting point, does more harm than good. Education is not always useful.......

To: Edwarda who wrote (77208)	4/9/2000 2:36:00 AM
From: jpmac	Respond to of 108807

Any word referencing homosexuality is going to be used by young males as a put down. Been going on forever. That they are now using Gay, a benign word and one used by the community itself in a positive way, is perhaps an advancement. lessee.. the alternatives, and the ones that in the past have been more commonly used are faggot and queer, homo (said with a sneer) and others. then we could get into the female side of things.. dyke, lizzie, so on. To put someone down by suggesting they are gay is as old as the world. Whoopdiedoo. There is, however, no historical meaning of the word gay that has anything to do with being lame... or stupid that I have ever known of, or been able to find. It is an affectionate joke amongst gays and friends to roll your eyes and tell someone they "are soooo gay".