Re: The New Gay Weddings

Revd. Eric Potts wrote:

>>> Perhaps more interstingly, I have come across quite a number of
>>> situations - in churches - where two single women are living together
....
>>> And if such couples can exist, there
>>> is no reason why other same sex "partnerships" should not do so also,
>>> without necessarily engaging in sexual activity.
>>
>> I'm missing a step in your reasoning, I think. Is there
>> any particular reason to think that if these pairs of
>> women living together are gay then they don't engage
>> in sexual activity?
>
> Not at all. But neither is there any reason to think that they do. We
> just don't know and I, for one, have no intention of asking.

I wasn't (of course) suggesting that you should. It's no more
your business than it is mine.

The only reason I'm puzzled is: if you don't have reason to
think that *these* couples are non-physical, why does their
existence support the idea that *some* gay couples are non-physical?

(By the way, I'm sure you're right that some gay couples
are non-physical. I'm just completely failing to see
what's in your head here...)

>>> In this
>>> particular context I used the term loosely as meaning those who oppose
>>> homosexual practice, but not neceesarily orientation.
>>
>> I hope you won't be offended if I suggest that that's
>> an extraordinarily silly way to use a potentially useful
>> term like "homophobic".
>>
>> (Actually, I fear it's gone the same way as "fundamentalist"
>> and is now unsalvageable except in contexts where it's
>> defined explicitly and used carefully. Still, verbicide
>> is a crime and it's a shame to be complicit in it.)
>
> "Verbicide" - what a useful term! (Though perhaps we need someLatin or
> Greek that looks more like "meaning-killing" rather than word killing,
> since the word itself survives.)

Someone else suggested "semanticide". That makes me uncomfortable
because of its graecolatinism (like "television" and, er, "homosexual").
Trouble is, the Latin words meaning "meaning" make for awkward
coinages. Sensicide? Sententicide? Significaticide? Significide?
Hideous, one and all.

> I can be pedantic about words too, sometimes (often!) But as you say, I
> think this particular battle has been lost. The fact is that language
> does evolve and there ain't much we can do to stop it. I'm not sure we
> should even try; though in technical articles we need to be specific
> about the meaning of words.

In technical contexts one can sometimes play the witch of Endor
and bring killed words temporarily back from the grave, by
defining them explicitly. In ordinary discourse, it's seldom
acceptable to make one's readers work so hard.

> So, I'm not offended, but I do think that "extraordinarily silly" is an
> extraordinarily silly bit of hyperbole! :-)

Noted. But don't you think it would be much better if the
word "homophobic" could be rescued and put to use for
referring to people who have an irrational fear or hatred
of homosexuality or homosexuals? That, after all, was
what it was originally intended to mean, and I think it's
only got to its present lamentable state because people
enjoyed using it as an insult.

Admittedly, it's also an ugly word, and misleading since
it really ought to mean something like "fear of things
that are the same as one another". So maybe a better
approach would be to find some other word that could
bear the original meaning of "homophobe". But, again,
I'm having trouble thinking of usable candidates.
Sodomophobe or lesbophobe? Somehow, I don't think
either of those would catch on. "Homosexophobe" is
clearly hopeless. Bleah.

--
Gareth McCaughan
..sig under construc
.

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