This was written in reaction to a post on my friend’s blog. I’m sorry to say it applies to far more people.

This is a rather interesting post (or rant), and I would have enjoyed it except for one little thing you probably didn’t even consider. It’s just one small word, but it speaks volumes: “faggot”.

I doubt that word means very much to you, and I can understand because I was once the same way. Speaking for myself, the word’s impact was something I never thought about, and I didn’t even know any openly gay people who might have made me pause for thought. (If I had known any gay people I wouldn’t have wanted to know them very well.)

However, regardless of the word’s weight for you personally, I know you know what it means. You also know its use is firmly associated with “people” such as Fred Phelps and with homophobia in general. It may be just another synonym for “gay” to you, but I know you wouldn’t say the infamous N-word is just another synonym for “black”. The point is not the word’s exact definition but rather the heavy emotions it carries, and you did use it as a pejorative, after all.

Why should you care if people are offended by your words? The most obvious reason would be simply that other people are offended. Unless you think insults will make gay people straight, or unless you want the closet to be more comfortable, I don’t see a point in using an offensive word when another would work just as well.

Another reason that comes to mind, and one which would matter a great deal to me, is that any gay person who knows you, whether you know them or not, will be less inclined to strike up a friendship. Who knows what you might miss out on?

Finally, I think the most important reason for you would be that the words and actions of any Christian reflect on the billions that share that name, meaning any gay man or lesbian who knows you or reads your blog will find it harder to willingly associate with strangers who are Christians, enter an unfamiliar church, or be struck by the love of Jesus as it shines through his followers (which is hard enough already). Again, the word may mean little to you, but it means a lot to some.

If none of those reasons seem significant, you’ll probably think I made far too big a deal out of this, but that’s okay because I don’t care. If you can come up with “brainless crackhead” and “retarded monkey zombie” off the top of your head, I know you can come up with something better than “faggot”.

Thinkgeek has some posable magnetic figurines called Acrobots. Frankly, I prefer Stikfas because they’re radically posable and expressive, but you still can’t stick them on your fridge. (I suppose duct tape would work if you didn’t even care about your fridge looking decent on the outside.)

Anyway, since these little people stick together, you can get several and do fancy things with them, including vast climbing races (again on the fridge) or dangerous fights with eating utensils. I chose to build a tower.

I think the three bots display different personalities. The one on the bottom is saying “it’s ridiculously easy to have two people standing on your hand and elbow,” the one in the middle is purposely making a hard job look entirely too difficult, and the unfortunate soul on top, holding two screws, doesn’t seem to care that the ground is pretty far away for a four-inch person. Perhaps the screws give special levitating powers. (Perhaps it’s just a little brainless figurine which doesn’t have any worries at all, much less falling — but what fun is that?)

How did I get the whole thing to balance? With tremendous difficulty, and by snapping the picture as quickly as possible.

On a side note, this reminds me of what is my favorite love song at the moment: “Our Way to Fall” by Yo La Tengo. It’s solemn, which this post isn’t, but I still had to give it a mention. I think you’ll thank me.