Comments on: Court: Straight man can be victim of homophobia

By: Justice

Justice — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 01:04:19 +0000

Hooray! Bring on the hate!

http://blog.jreignconsulting.com/2009/01/04/hooray–bring-on-the-hate.aspx

The backlash from hate is what will move us forward!

By: TANK

TANK — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 21:43:39 +0000

There’s two main approaches to the meaning of bigoted slang: the semantic and the contextual. The semantic approach claims that the meaning of the word is just bad in all cases (or something like that), and the contextual that it depends on use and audience–context. Anyway, I happen to side with the semantic approach over the contextual, and anyone who calls me a faggot will definitely not be getting a thank you from me…maybe a short trip down a long flight of stairs, but not a thank you, thankya thankya. The reclaiming side always goes for the contextual approach to the meaning of bigoted hate jargon, but without any understanding of why to avoid it.

By: Mike J

Mike J — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:43:58 +0000

I want to bring in another angle – what I see as wrong here is that being gay is seen as such a horrific thing that no one argues against the slanderous effects behind such terms such as faggot. They are universally accepted as the epidomy of insults. I don’t know if I can explain this properly but what I see, here, is that there is something far more at stake here then a straight man being harassed by the use of the term faggot etc and that is that no one is arguing that there is nothing wrong with being gay and therefore the man should not be so insulted by being called a faggot and his co-workers should not get the mileage they get out of those terms. What needs, I believe, to happen is that we (the GLBTTQ community) and our allies need to start to insist that being Gay is just fine, thank you very much, and to get angry and protest when people accept terms such as Gay, Faggot, Homo etc as the ultimate insult. Stop accepting these labels as insults, start insisting that it is perfectly cool to be Gay and take away their power to keep us ashamed and keep us down. If someone calls you a faggot tell them “thank you for the compliment”. There I think I explained myself as best I can.

By: Gyzmo

Gyzmo — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 16:40:17 +0000

Thank you Lord Justice Sedley. We all should think the way you do.

Happy Holidays to you and yours from me here in the USA.

By: RJLigier

RJLigier — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 00:40:40 +0000

Knowing the laws associated with assault, being married does not make you straight. Outwardly heterosexual, but definitely not straight. Unless as a straight person, knowing that if he responded in kind to borderline behavior from in all probability, LGBT employees, he knew that he would lose his job. The UK acted responsibly to protect his rights. It only took 43 years in the USA for that to happen, except the straight person had to be sexually assaulted. Thank you for the Oncale vs Sundowner Offshore Oil Services decision.

By: John Petsinger

John Petsinger — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 19:12:46 +0000

Good luck to Mr. English.

In 1997, the Pennsylvania Bureau of Workers’ Compensation replaced wages lost since 1988 as the result of an “abnormal working condition” that included public supervisory harassment to “straighten up, get back with the Roman Catholic church, and get married,” and “not touch (other people) because (the applicant) might have ‘the AIDS’.”

See youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MY0i3ILOHA

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 18:48:11 +0000

I commend the British Court for having the guts to stand up to bullies, whether gay or straight against anybody!! People who taunt others are either closeted gays who hate themselve so that have to belittle somebody else to feel superior, or they were bullies in school and nobody did anything to stop them.

I would sue every employee that taunted me. I hope the guy gets a nice big fat punitive and compensatory settlement.

Hip hip hooray for the courts!

Billy P
9th Generation Californian
United States of America

By: wimsy

wimsy — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:52:17 +0000

Rachel, it was not “foolish” to strip gender identity from ENDA — it was done with deliberate, hateful, premeditated malice and bigotry. For those who think America is progressive, try to imagine our current Supreme Court making the same decision the English court made in this case.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:48:36 +0000

Alex’s comments are right on. This is why it was foolish to strip gender identity from ENDA last year. Gay people often do not adhere to established norms of gender expression (butch women, feminine men). Gender identity protections do much more than protect the transgendered. Taking it out of the bill severely weakens ENDA for everyone.

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 05:36:54 +0000

This is part of the reason why all laws protecting folks due to sexual orientation ought to be expanded to include gender identity. Discrimination and harassment are often based on perceived gendered characteristics. If a male is fired for being “too feminine” and not for being gay, he might not be able to get his job back unless gender identity is inserted into the law.