Thursday, January 29, 2009

oh my god you're so gay!

The term "gay" has officially turned into a substitute for stupid/funny/girly/sissy/dumb/and whatever else a person wants to use it for. It is slowly become an everyday word in the American lexicon and most of the time we say the word gay and don't ever stop to think what it really means.

Perhaps it is easier to give that word a different meaning and turn it into something funny and people can see the humor in it, for example like the word "whore" as many of us may refer to our friends as regardless of how promiscuous they may or may not be.

So this week the focus will the gay/lesbian/queer community in the South Asian community and in order to start off the week addressing this issue I think it's really important to know what that word "gay" means to you, and the word "lesbian" and queer. Does it provoke certain images? Certain thoughts? What context do you use it? Do you think those words can be important to the South Asian community?

Before I start writing about this issue I would like you to explore within yourself and try and help me so that I can understand what some of you may think and better be able to understand it in a different context and give you facts and statistics that might challenge or reinforce your thoughts. So please comment :-)

7 comments:

  1. Well I look at gay/lesbian through my Islam lenses, so for me I'm against it. Some say that there is a gay gene, that those "born" gay cannot change and with that mentality you do NOT want to change. I do not know much about the gay/lesbian issue in the south asian community. I rather pretend it does not exist because most of us are Muslims first and Islam is against that.

    Inshallah you will achieve lots with this blog. Keep putting the word out about this and all the issues out there that affect us.

    Good luck!

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  2. this is an interesting and untouched topic... im curious to read what you will post... hope you post soon.... my thoughts pretty much echo marjnhomer's.... and im not sure at this point what else i can reason for this subject... its pretty touchy and i've kind of accepted it in the general american lifestyle...however i don't know how i would feel if it was closer to home i.e. the south asian community

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  3. did you see the youtube video/commercial: That's so gay"?

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  4. Thank you wonderful people for the feedback :-)

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  5. Hi there Defends,

    I think it's cute that you wrote the word has officially turned... That makes me feel old, it's actually a retro word from the 80s. As a kid we used the word gay in lieu of stupid/dumb/sucks... then the word turned. Now when I use the word gay, I add: "circo 1985". hee hee.

    NEway, about your post... I'm not too familiar w/the south asian culture, so my thoughts aren't revelant I guess. But I will say this, as time passes, I am becoming desensitized to "it" (meaning seeing their lifestyle around us, on tv, ads, etc). I think by now, we all have a gay relative which in turn has probably helped us realize that no matter our lens color they are still humans... be kind!

    Good post, and nice to meet you!

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