[HPFGU-OTChatter] Banned Books and Lesbians

[Queer as John]

annemehr <annemehr at yahoo.com> said:

> If you really wanted to compare the relative amounts of objection to
> the three books that you mentioned, you would have to limit your
> statistics to libraries that had all three of the books, and see how
> many banning request each one got.

Sorry, I must not have been clear. I wasn't trying to say that Harry was
more hated, and in doing so I didn't explain myself clearly. This all dates
back to a discussion we had AGES ago on-list, back in 2000 or 2001, where
someone compared _Heather_ and _Roomate_ to HP in 'offensiveness' level. I
was musing to myself precisely what you say here:

> And of course, I have just seen an objection to my own preceeding
> paragraph.  There may well be many people who *would* ask to ban
> "Heather" and "Daddy's Roommate", but didn't because they hadn't heard
> of them.  I think a lot more people have heard of Harry Potter.
>
> To sum up, Harry Potter *may* be first on the banned books requests
> not because it is more intensely hated, but merely because it is more
> ubiquitous than the others.

Exactly.

Me:

>> "gay" should be used only as an adjective. "Gay" as a noun - "gays gathered
>> for a demonstration" - is not acceptable."

Annemehr:
 
> This is *completely* new to me.  I'll take it to heart.  BTW, you seem
> to allow for the use of "lesbian" as a noun, am I correct?

Yes. I'm quite prepared to be corrected by a lesbian, but AFAIK and IIRC
"gay men" and "lesbians", "gay people", "he is gay", "a gay man" and "a
lesbian" are fine, but "a gay" (a gay *what* is the question) "gays" and
"the gays" are offensive to some. "She is lesbian" sounds silly and, the
right tone of voice, offensive. Many lesbians prefer the group term "gay men
and lesbians".

I suppose it's the similar problem that I face as a white person when
referring to black people: African-American? Afro-Caribbean? People of
color? Black? black? (lowercase intentional) Brown? I tend to stick with
African-American when referring to black Americans, Afro-Caribbean when
referring to black Brits, and then I keep my antennae out for reactions,
corrections or language used by the other person, adapting mine to suit.s

Personally? This is *really* nitpicky, which is why I didn't bring it up
earlier. I don't use "gays" and I do usually point out that people find it
offensive. However, I find "homosexual" more offensive, simply because it
reduces gay people to sex, sex, sex. Despite the userinfo page on my
LiveJournal. *grin*

--J

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Queer as John || john at queerasjohn.com

AIM, YM & LJ @ QueerAsJohn || www.queerasjohn.com

"There's nowt as queer as folk."  --English proverb
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