ThePlayDrive
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The league is perfectly within its rights to fine Kobe and he should be fined for unsportsmanlike conduct. But the whole idea that because he said "faggot" or whatever makes him a homophobe is silly. I call lame stuff "gay" all the time. I've called someone I thought was an asshole a "fag" once or twice. And I'm don't consider myself a raging homophobe. When I call something gay, I'm not refering to it's sexual preferences, I'm referring to it's high level of lameness. When I call someone a fag, I'm not refering to a man who likes to sleep with other men. I'm referring to an inconsiderate asshole (like guys who ride Harleys!). While homophobes and gay bashers do use those words in a hateful manner to attack gays, most people I know use them in a context that has nothing to do with sexuality.
It's not about the context of the a word, it's about the meaning of the word. If I were to see a white person or Asian behaving like an asshole and call them "black" or a nigger, the context obviously shows that I'm not talking down to a black person. However, my use of either term clearly shows that I perceive being black as a negative thing. I'm attaching negative behavior and characteristics to being black.
When you call someone gay even if they're not and you're not talking down to a gay person, you're still using a word that attaches being gay with negativity.
Calling someone gay or a faggot is such a powerful insult because the people you're saying it to don't want to be perceived as homosexual. Everyone knows the roots of those terms just like everyone knows that calling someone "black" after doing something negative is a statement about how you perceive black people.