How many times have you overheard kids say 鈥渟o gay鈥� about something as arbitrary as an annoying mobile ringtone? Or what about a bunch of drunk blokes at the pub calling their mate 鈥渇aggot鈥� for opting out of a round of beers.
I鈥檝e heard this stuff so many times I barely even take notice. It鈥檚 not that I鈥檓 cool with, I鈥檓 just used to it. Homophobic slurs are chucked around so casually even homos can be deaf to the harm they cause.
This is why folks at the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies at Canada鈥檚 University of Alberta have launched . The website shows the prevalence of casual homophobia in today鈥檚 society by tallying the number of homophobic remarks posted on Twitter in real time.
At 9pm on Sunday the F-word had been tweeted nearly 25,000 times that day alone. Last week it received 214,000 runs and since the site began on July 5 it鈥檚 been mentioned 2.8 million times. For a word that so many of us find offensive, it sure is popular.
In addition to the tally, the site pulls in actual tweets containing key homophobic words. Stuff like:
Tough guy @DaddaPig7 brags, 鈥淕eorge was crying so I knocked that little faggot out鈥�, @kaithubbard, clearly unable to take a compliment, tweets 鈥淜nocked a girl out for calling me a dyke #winning鈥�; and @cheens09 fails at self-deprecation with one stupid hashtag, 鈥淚鈥檓 as sober as a Catholic nun teaching a Sunday school class right now #sogay”.
I was so morbidly fascinated by the rapid-fire stream of gay-bashing, I couldn鈥檛 tear my eyes away.
Sure, some tweets weren鈥檛 aggressively homophobic 鈥� and it seemed like a few 鈥渄yke鈥� and 鈥渇ag鈥� comments were posted by queers who鈥檇 reclaimed the words – but the vast majority came from a pretty ugly place.
Once upon a time people got away with calling folks like Muhammad Ali the N-word in everyday speech – we now know better. Why should homophobic terms be any different? Or why should disparaging names for trans peeps be ok just ‘cos they鈥檝e been 鈥渁ffectionately鈥� used forever?
There are only around 500 million of the world鈥檚 7 billion people on Twitter 鈥� so if we鈥檙e seeing anti-gay language go down on social media, you know there鈥檚 far worse shit being said offline. Perhaps it鈥檚 time we stopped being so casual about casual homophobia, and started being more careful with our own choice of words.
INFO:聽You can follow Monique Schafter on Twitter聽
