See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

ALT

I am also pretty sure it's ignorance in 99% of cases. But. Please understand. That captioning something "gay panic" has deeply dark implications.

ALT

babe you are implying he's about to commit a hatecrime

ALT

Waking up to that image is in fact what sent me down this path

ALT

ALT

they are selling alcohol with this cutesy sticker design. fuck, man

People in the comments: lol didn't you know 'gay' used to mean 'happy'? Language changes, why would you want to stop this phrase from having a positive meaning

Places in the USA where Gay Panic is still a legally admissable defense for homicide:

I can't tell you how to tag your fanart. But if you read the tags, tons of people had no idea 'gay panic' had any alternate meaning, and I think if this were me I would want to know. This is not an outdated term and I'm sorry but some of you are being fucking stupid about this.

The amount of people getting defensive and patronizing about their Right to use this term in a cutesy way is infinitely more annoying than people who just had no idea of its origins.

Use it however you want, I'm not a fucking cop, but maybe be aware of why queers over thirty are looking at you like that when you wear a rainbow "gay panic" shirt to pride.

ALT

ALT

Hey. Queer (old?) dyke here. You and many other people are very much missing the point of this post.

Nowhere did I say that I expect people to stop saying “gay panic.” In fact, directly above this I said I’m not here to tell you how to tag your fanfic (etc). Do I hate hearing this phrase used that way because I came of age hearing it used to describe murder? Absolutely. But who the fuck am I to tell you this? I don’t have any power over you. Telling you that you sound stupid is not censorship. Do whatever you want forever.

I didn’t make this post because I wanted people to grovel and repent for having said Bad Words. I made it because you cannot say that this term has been reclaimed when people do not know what it means. What it CURRENTLY means. I made this post because this is a present day problem that you need to know about. There are countless tags confirming my suspicion that this was not common knowledge here on tumblr dot com.

When I say “you’re all being stupid about this,” what I mean is many people are making this post out to be about language policing when it is about calling attention to an extremely disturbing legal and cultural phenomenon: the idea that queer people are predatory and straight people are justified when they kill us.

If you think this is not a current problem, check out the LGBTQ+ Bar Association’s spreadsheet. If you think this is solely an American phenomenon, I can tell you didn’t even glance at the Wikipedia page.

What do I want for the next generation of queer people? I want this kind of fight to be over. We’re not going to accomplish that by assuming this is already history and we don’t need to worry about it.

ALT

I am also pretty sure it's ignorance in 99% of cases. But. Please understand. That captioning something "gay panic" has deeply dark implications.

ALT

babe you are implying he's about to commit a hatecrime

ALT

Waking up to that image is in fact what sent me down this path

ALT

ALT

they are selling alcohol with this cutesy sticker design. fuck, man

People in the comments: lol didn't you know 'gay' used to mean 'happy'? Language changes, why would you want to stop this phrase from having a positive meaning

Places in the USA where Gay Panic is still a legally admissable defense for homicide:

I can't tell you how to tag your fanart. But if you read the tags, tons of people had no idea 'gay panic' had any alternate meaning, and I think if this were me I would want to know. This is not an outdated term and I'm sorry but some of you are being fucking stupid about this.

I do want y'all to realize that if you came into your queerness in the late 2000s, chances are you "had a Gay Panic" before realizing your queerness. In a sense, the phrase was reclaimed by the community as a descriptor for one's own moment of queer clarity. The fact that babygays don't know that is not necessarily a bad thing, it means the last generation of queers put a buffer zone between the origin of the phrase and its reclamation by queers.

I don’t actually have a problem with linguistic shifts or reclamation. My argument here is that this is not entirely a debate about semantic origin. Outside of fandom Internet spaces, this term is still very likely to be interpreted to mean “homophobic violence.” And I think people using it to mean “gay awakening” really need to be aware of that. Because if you look in the reblogs and tags, a ton of people have no idea. You cannot reclaim something if you don’t know what it means.

This isn’t “queer history” either, for the folks tagging it that way. It’s the most common usage for that term right now. At no point did I say people shouldn’t use it or that it’s Problematic. I’m saying people are going to misinterpret what you are saying and it will be entirely reasonable for them to do so.

ALT

I am also pretty sure it's ignorance in 99% of cases. But. Please understand. That captioning something "gay panic" has deeply dark implications.

ALT

babe you are implying he's about to commit a hatecrime

ALT

Waking up to that image is in fact what sent me down this path

ALT

ALT

they are selling alcohol with this cutesy sticker design. fuck, man

People in the comments: lol didn't you know 'gay' used to mean 'happy'? Language changes, why would you want to stop this phrase from having a positive meaning

Places in the USA where Gay Panic is still a legally admissable defense for homicide:

I can't tell you how to tag your fanart. But if you read the tags, tons of people had no idea 'gay panic' had any alternate meaning, and I think if this were me I would want to know. This is not an outdated term and I'm sorry but some of you are being fucking stupid about this.

The amount of people getting defensive and patronizing about their Right to use this term in a cutesy way is infinitely more annoying than people who just had no idea of its origins.

Use it however you want, I'm not a fucking cop, but maybe be aware of why queers over thirty are looking at you like that when you wear a rainbow "gay panic" shirt to pride.

ALT

I am also pretty sure it's ignorance in 99% of cases. But. Please understand. That captioning something "gay panic" has deeply dark implications.

ALT

babe you are implying he's about to commit a hatecrime

ALT

Waking up to that image is in fact what sent me down this path

ALT

ALT

they are selling alcohol with this cutesy sticker design. fuck, man

People in the comments: lol didn't you know 'gay' used to mean 'happy'? Language changes, why would you want to stop this phrase from having a positive meaning

Places in the USA where Gay Panic is still a legally admissable defense for homicide:

I can't tell you how to tag your fanart. But if you read the tags, tons of people had no idea 'gay panic' had any alternate meaning, and I think if this were me I would want to know. This is not an outdated term and I'm sorry but some of you are being fucking stupid about this.

The amount of people getting defensive and patronizing about their Right to use this term in a cutesy way is infinitely more annoying than people who just had no idea of its origins.

Use it however you want, I’m not a fucking cop, but maybe be aware of why queers over thirty are looking at you like that when you wear a rainbow “gay panic” shirt to pride.

ALT

I am also pretty sure it's ignorance in 99% of cases. But. Please understand. That captioning something "gay panic" has deeply dark implications.

ALT

babe you are implying he's about to commit a hatecrime

ALT

Waking up to that image is in fact what sent me down this path

ALT

ALT

they are selling alcohol with this cutesy sticker design. fuck, man

People in the comments: lol didn’t you know ‘gay’ used to mean 'happy’? Language changes, why would you want to stop this phrase from having a positive meaning

Places in the USA where Gay Panic is still a legally admissable defense for homicide:

ALT

I can’t tell you how to tag your fanart. But if you read the tags, tons of people had no idea 'gay panic’ had any alternate meaning, and I think if this were me I would want to know. This is not an outdated term and I’m sorry but some of you are being fucking stupid about this.

ALT

I am also pretty sure it's ignorance in 99% of cases. But. Please understand. That captioning something "gay panic" has deeply dark implications.

ALT

babe you are implying he's about to commit a hatecrime

ALT

Waking up to that image is in fact what sent me down this path

ALT

ALT

they are selling alcohol with this cutesy sticker design. fuck, man

ALT

I am also pretty sure it’s ignorance in 99% of cases. But. Please understand. That captioning something “gay panic” has deeply dark implications.

ALT

babe you are implying he’s about to commit a hatecrime

ALT

Bonus: old picture of my college bicycle, a Trek mountain bike that was way too big and heavy for me.