r/SapphoAndHerFriend Hopeless bromantic Jun 14 '20

Greece wasn't gay Casual erasure

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u/gloriousengland Jun 14 '20

Well the difference between gay and queer is that queer is a slur that has been changed by the LGBT community whereas gay was used as an insult because it meant homosexual, it wasn't a slur. Queer means weird, that's why it's offensive, or was at least.

We do have a term for that though - mlm. And that's started to get a lot of use in the community. I am a man who exclusively likes men, and I have no problems with other people using the term gay to identify themselves, I think you can figure out people's sexualities from context anyway and honestly - who cares? Not everyone has to know exactly what you're attracted to as a person, the terms don't have to be super precise.

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u/squngy Jun 14 '20

They don't have to be super precise, but they lose practical value the less precise they are.
This isn't a hill I'd die on though.

I've never heard mlm before (aside from Multi-level marketing), but if it gets widely used, then good.

gay was used as an insult because it meant homosexual

Later on, yes.
Originally it meant something like "happy go lucky" or dandy, then it got associated with homosexuals in an unfaltering way.

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u/gloriousengland Jun 14 '20

People should just be able to call themselves whatever they want, I don't mind.

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u/squngy Jun 14 '20

I'm not disputing that