Posted by Peter Ceresole on November 29, 2014 at 12:51:39 user PeterC.
In Reply to: Re: Ransome's Language Continued posted by Roger Wardale on November 29, 2014 at 06:20:02:
I would not think of using the word in its pejorative sense.
Fortunately it's no longer as pejorative as it recently was; it's been reclaimed by homosexuals, which in the swirlingly complicated world of social and gender politics, makes a great deal of sense.
Of course, the real problem is that this isn't really a question of language and/or usage, but emerges from a genuinely horrible way of thinking that goes way back into history; even as late as the '50s (1952) Alan Turing was convicted of homosexual acts and may have committed suicide as a result. Fortunately we've come a long way since then. But to several friends of mine these questions of language signify what are to them real dangers that they have to banish.
A good reason to enjoy AR, where these things don't matter and aren't mentioned.