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Comment on [CW: Slurs/pejoratives, morality] When is it considered immoral if someone is saying something that they know is pejorative and they are not intending it as disparaging towards the original group?

RobotToaster@mander.xyz ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

Queer to mean “weird or odd” dates from the 16th century, it didn’t come to refer to homosexuality until the 19th century, so to me although it would sound dated the original meaning still has precedence.

It’s similar to gay/gaily used in it’s original meaning in a lot of ways.

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Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’m in my mid-60s and I would still assume “queer” or “gay” when used about a human being refers to them being not-cishet in some way.

I can see them being used about something inanimate. A rainbow flag and a US flag can both flutter gaily in a parade. And a queer old Cabinet of Curiosities might be intriguing.

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JoBo@feddit.uk ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
These two examples are quite different, I think.

Gay was not originally a slur, AFAIK. It was adopted as a less clinical descriptor by gay people themselves (again, AFAIK). There have been concerted efforts to make it into a slur and it is often used in a derogatory fashion, but it does not have a pre-history of being used as a slur.

Queer is the opposite. It was used as a slur and it is a rare example of successful reclamation of a word. A slogan in the 1980s on Gay Pride protests was “We’re here, we’re queer, we’re fabulous, get used to it”. At the time, queer was very much a slur so the chant had a bite that you wouldn’t hear in it today.

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- Drummyralf@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Wasn’t gay “fun” back in the day? As in, “I’m having a gay old time”
  
  Non-native, so don’t know much about the history.
  
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  - JoBo@feddit.uk ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Yes. I never said any different. It was adopted as a descriptor by gay men, not bigots trying to denigrate them.
    
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    Drummyralf@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Oh, my comment was more of an honest followup question about the language, not an attempt to attack the validity of your comment. I Didn’t mean to come across that way.
    
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