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Friday, March 30, 2007
Christine Quinn is “the first openly homosexual leader of the New York City Council. … She suggested that the Ancient Order of Hibernians [the group that organizes Manhattan’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade] should permit homosexual activists the right to march behind the New York City council banner.”
Does something strike you as odd about that statement? There is no misinformation; it is a factual sentence. Which is a good thing because it is from last week’s Associated Press article on Quinn marching in the Dublin, Ireland, LGBT-inclusive St. Pat’s parade.
Like many news outlets, the New York Blade often relies on the Associated Press for its content. We do edit the stories when needed, sometimes drastically, sometimes not. In this case, we substituted the term “gay” for “homosexual”: the first openly gay leader.
Who says “openly homosexual”? In a context such as this, the term is outdated an awkward. You would expect an AP reporter to be savvier. Ditto for the editors who approved the piece.
(To be fair to them, our copy of the AP style states “Gay is an acceptable and popular synonym for homosexual.” It doesn’t state that one is preferred over another.)
But the distinction between the two terms is important and influential.
Every May since 2001 a Gallup poll asked Americans “In general, do you think homosexuals should or should not have equal rights in terms of job opportunities?”
The yes responses are as follows: 2001: 85 percent; 2002 86 percent; 2003 88 percent; 2004: 89 percent; 2005: 90 percent/87 percent; and 2006: 89 percent.
Note the two percentages given in 2005. That year, Gallup asked half the respondents about equal rights for “gays and lesbians,” resulting in a 3 percent higher approval compared with the Galllup’s typical use of the term “homosexual.”
Think about it, the word “homosexual” has many negative associations. The religious right claims that Biblical passages condemn homosexuality; outdated medical and psychological journals declare it a disease; some people consider the term more sexualized than the phrase “gay and lesbian.” It’s also more clinical, perhaps making it easier to dehumanize queer folk.
We are not suggesting the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation or the Human Rights Campaign begin condemning people and media who use the word. No one should go into rehab for uttering the H word.
Then again … it wouldn’t be bad for mainstream media to be aware of how they use the terms. It would behoove us as LGBT people to pay attention to how words are used to describe us. They can make a difference.
Switching the terms “gay” and “homosexual” also influenced the number of people who said they were against equal rights. According to the same Gallup poll mentioned above, in 2005, 7 percent said “gays and lesbians” should not have equal rights in terms of employment. But 11 percent said that “homosexuals” should not have equal rights. That translates to 4 percent change—in favor of LGBT equality—simply because of the terminology.
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