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.
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.
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.
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.