Politically Correkt

Here’s another thing I overheard while sitting in this coffee shop. I missed the beginning (again, due to my headphones), but one of the employees was making small talk with a patron about whatever work he was doing. The guy said something along the lines of his work being “gay”… to which the employee, being a homosexual, said, “I take offense to that.”

I had a flashback to when something similar happened at BG, where I met a fellow composer and friend of mine and made the same… faux pas.

Hey. “Gay” is just a colloquialism. If flippant use of the slang offends you… suck it up. I mean, I don’t take offense when atheists say “Jesus Christ”… although maybe I should (isn’t it ironic that we use the name of an icon of common belief as an expression of disbelief?). Gay didn’t always mean homosexual. What if I said “That’s totally lame”… would that put your mind at ease? Shouldn’t that be offensive to paraplegics?

I mean, I don’t go out of my way to offend people. I believe strongly in courtesy, politeness, and respectful behavior. But this gets on my nerves. No slang left behind?

I’m not even going near the gay marriage thing (it’s an oxymoron and thus falls under the category of “semantic” argument… I’m for it if you just title it something like “secular matrimony”); the debate itself is insulting to people on both sides of the issue, as are the airheads who head the debates. All I’m saying is that some people almost seem to be looking for a fight over their own homosexuality. Maybe he’s the one who’s got phobias. For the sake of a politically correct, self-righteous pursuit of global vindication, some people have become homophobophobic.

I, for one, don’t like to be vilified by people who don’t know anything about me. You assume I’m a Bible-beating neo-Nazi just because I didn’t vote for Kerry? Go back to your Joan Tower CDs, you reverse discriminatory prick. Three cheers for tolerance, huh, pal? Jesus Christ, this is gay.