A Question of Semantics

[Rei]

I noticed something when reading the thread, A Dissertation Story. Apparently it is not acceptable to use the word "homosexual" in a formal paper, and that it would be more appropriate to write "lesbian/gay" or "sexual minority". I'll admit that this bewilders me. Perhaps I'm just sheltered from how people abuse words, but I was certain that "homosexual" was the more acceptable word and less likely to cause issues. Am I crazy for thinking this? And what is the reasoning for "lesbian/gay" being a more acceptable term than "homosexual"?

[zeroguy]

I'll admit I was just about as bewildered as you. I don't consider myself to be sheltered in the abuse of words (at least around where I am), since on college campuses you hear a lot of it, and I don't see how "gay" would ever be better than "homosexual". But hey, I'm not a linguist.

[anonshadow]

Same here. And, while I'm not a linguist, I am surrounded by gay and bi friends (literally: I was the only friend other than my high school boyfriends in my group of friends who wasn't gay or bi), and I've never heard that.

[starlooker]

The history of the word homosexual has negative historical connotations (as in, being related in psychology history to something that ought to be cured). Basically, from what I understand from certain faculty members, it's the word straight people use when they aren't comfortable with the words lesbian/gay. I've never heard any of the LGBT folk in my department (and there are a lot of them -- more of my faculty members and cohort mates fall into this category than not) refer to themselves with it. It's not something that's unaccepable, really, but if you look at the professional literature with these issues, you see it being phased out a lot. And, given that I'm in a department where LGBT issues are major issues of study (and social justice efforts) terminology tends to be an issue. So I try to be sensitive to that. It's not that it's a perjorative term, just outdated.

[Eaquae Legit]

Huh. I would never have guessed. "Gay" is such a commonly used insult that I would have expected it to be far more offensive than "homosexual." I suppose, though, that it doesn't have the clinical connotations that "gay" does. Looking at it that way, I can understand it more easily.

Yet the counterpart to "homosexual" seems to be "heterosexual," which is a word that I would have thought to be less value-laden than "straight." We tend to think of straight things as being better than crooked or bent things. While those particular antonyms aren't used to describe gay/lesbian people, we still have them in our heads connected with the word "straight."

And then one runs into the issue of their being more than just lesbian/gay "sexual minorities." That's the term I'd find most useful, I suppose, unless I were talking about a specific group. "Gay/lesbian" excludes bi-, trans-, a-, and anyone else with an a-typical sexual orientation. Listing everyone every time would get exhausting, so when speaking generally "sexual minority" would be useful.

Anyway, thanks for the explanation, Zona. Nice little brain-stretching exercise.

[neo-dragon]

I also thought that terms like "gay" were much more colloquial than "homosexual", and in spite of the explanation, I would personally still use the latter in formal writing unless told otherwise. But that's just me.

[hive_king]

Now what I don't understand is the community's adoption of "queer". Queer started off as even more of an insult than "homosexual", as I understand it, and literally means "weird" or "abnormal", yet many LBGT groups are increasingly embracing it as a catch-all.

[neo-dragon]

I suspect that it's the whole "taking away its power by making it our word" mentality. You know, like how certain black people enjoy using the N-word.

[zeroguy]

Now what I don't understand is the community's adoption of "queer". Queer started off as even more of an insult than "homosexual", as I understand it, and literally means "weird" or "abnormal", yet many LBGT groups are increasingly embracing it as a catch-all.

Homer: They're embarrassing America. They turned the Navy into a floating joke. They ruined all our best names like Bruce, and Lance, and Julian. Those were the toughest names we had! Now they're just, uh...
John: Queer?
Homer: Yeah, and that's another thing! I resent you people using that word. That's our word for making fun of you! We need it!! Well I'm taking back our word, and I'm taking back my son!

[jotabe]

I rather stick to the more scientifically accurate hetero/homo/bi-sexual. I don't even put trans-sexual into the equation, since it does not describe any kind of sexual behaviour (transexuals will still be hetero/homo/bi according to their preference in their new gender).

Sexual minorities is awfully inaccurate, in my oppinion. It is politically-emotionally loaded. Furthermore, the word "minority" is only useful in a social statistical analysis (i.e. useless).