My native language isn't English, and I know about the recent event with Isaiah Washington. But "the use of the word 'homosexual' is usually offensive"? Isn't that going a little bit overaboard?

I'm evidently in the minority on this one, but I actually prefer the word 'homosexual' to gay. Homosexual, to me, is purely descriptive - homo (meaning 'same') from the Greek, sexual, meaning... er, sexual. Whereas 'gay' kind of implies that if you fancy the same sex you MUST be an Oscar Wilde type who loves parties and colour and flamboyance. I mean isn't that where it originally came from, in a nudge nudge wink wink kind of a way... oh, the ribbons look so gay and pretty! The party decorations are so gay and bright!

Homosexual is clinical and reductive, seeming to imply what is most important about us is the "sexual" part.

I see what you're saying here, but I actually prefer a word that makes no claim to describe anything other than my sexuality, as opposed to a word that implicitly attributes other qualities to me because of my sexuality.

It also seems strange to me that the word 'homosexual' should be taboo when the words 'bisexual' and 'heterosexual' aren't. I mean, sure, there are people out there who use the word 'homosexual' in a negative way, as something to be diagnosed and cured.... but equally, there are people who use gay that way (ex-gay therapy, anyone?) And gay is also very widely used now to mean pathetic or stupid, which homosexual isn't. I think to me, offensiveness really depends on the intent of the speaker and the context in which they're using the word, not the particular one of those two words that they use.

you live in England and haven't had to put with nearly the same amount of religious bigotry as have we.

Yeah, I prefer homosexual as well to be honest. The homophobes have gone and taken 'gay' and made it mean someone who is of a lower standard than straight people. It makes me cringe when I see someone coming out of the closet and say 'I'm gay.' I dunno why...it just sounds wierd now. I would much prefer to say 'I fancy men not women.' It takes away the stigma associated with gay, and reverts sexuality back to something simple. 

Straight people don't get offended when they are referred to as heterosexuals, so gay people shouldn't be offended when referred to homosexuals. I certainly don't get offended when i'm called bi-sexual, but I would feel a certain amount of indignation if i was called gay.

But yeah, you're probably right Michael, British people might think about this sort of thing differently.

There are two reasons why religious fanatics/ anti-gay people use the word homosexual instead of gay.  First, they want to take away the term gay.  They believe it gives gay people a positive image at least superficially.  Secondly, they want to treat gay people like oddities so they use medical language.  What they want to do is dehumanize and chip away at gay people's self esteem.  I've experienced it and I know their intentions that's why I use gay.

The three gay-specific slurs (not involving a sexual activity) which I've most often been faced with are Fag(got), Queer, and Homo - usually preceded by the other "F" word. Adding sexual to Homo doesn't make me any more comfortable with it, in fact it might make me less so.

I suspect that younger (and perhaps Brit) gays are less bothered by it because they haven't (yet) faced decades of hearing homosexual used - with contempt, venom, revulsion, and/or disdain - from podiums and pulpits, in classrooms and courtrooms, in churches and legislative chambers, by people who wanted to promote anti-gay policies while maintaining verbal "social acceptability." I think of it as "stealth hate."

The days have passed, thank the gods, when essays appeared in publications like Time, Newsweek, and the New York Times demanding that homosexuals "give back the word Gay so that normal people can use it again the way it's supposed to be used." One outspoken advocate of that position, the late troglodyte A.M. Rosenthal of the Times, insisted that homosexual and pervert could and should be used interchangeably... and they often were - and in many places in this nation still often are.

Ironically, I find myself mildly amused by the emergence of the semi-neutral 'Mo in the vocabularies of men who want to make it clear that they're straight but don't want to come across as haters or baiters.

Didn't mean to go on so long. Welcome back, Michael. Once again, I'm wit' youse.

gay or homosexual.....in our society, it means the same thing. a person who likes the same sex.

if we all started saying "I'm a homosexual...." then fine...but the hate would still be out there....there will still be stereotypes out there....what i mean is....i don't know why one word is different than the other....

"Homosexual is clinical and reductive, seeming to imply what is most important about us is the "sexual" part. It's also an old word and dates back to a time when we were considered "other" and "alien" and for most gay folks it still carries that meaning " - - - obviously, i don't agree with the notion that we're all about the sexual part.....and if the word gay was used back in those days, the results would've not been different. people would've still seen us as "alien" and "sinful"....they would've used the word in a hurtful manner like i assume they did with the word homosexual....

now, when i personally think of the word homosexual, i think of it as a word for doctors and scientists to use....meaning, the "official" term....not a bad term, but for example, when i am with friends, i don't say "i don't like penis"...i say "I don't like d_ck"....but penis is the real name for it.....correct?

once again, it is a time like this where i hate my computer...because i doubt this is coming out right....now, i am of a different generation so maybe i am totally out of the ballpark and really have no idea what the hellllll i am talking about.....but eh, i tried.

 

Here's a link to an article that examines in detail the straight American male's growing fear of the term 'homosexual' and male intimacy in general.

http://www.alternet.org/sex/55816/?page=1

It's by John Ibson, professor of American Studies at CSU, Fullerton.