Young homophobe kills gay student in California

Dang! I thought you were an adult.

Uh, for the kid who shot the gay kid. He just turned 14 when he did it. Apparently he killed the kid because the gay kid had a crush on the killer and had made it publicly known. Anyway, so far they've decided to try him in adult court.

I get that. I was hoping to move past the obvious-that words mean what the most people agree that they mean-and move on to why they agree. Conceding that the intent behind the word need not have anything to do with fear kind of ends the discussion either way. So, he was a "homophobe," but everyone agrees that they have no way of knowing whether he actually feared homosexuals and swears that they aren't just piling on every kind of belittling, denigrating implication they can think of in the name of political correctness. What the fuck ever.

I knew there was more to it.

This is a wake up call for gays. Don't even bother liking straight people.

Does any good come from proclaiming your love for a straight homophobe?

Yeah, but going through ALL THAT, he still knew he was gay.

Rrright.

Interesting

That's okay, Mewa. I wasn't expecting you to bother thinking too much.

That kid had bigger problems than just being gay...

15 year old eighth grader????

I'm just amazed that it was a 14 year old that killed him. I know I wasn't about to kill someone for really anything when I was 14, and I had damn good reasons to do so.

And In California too. I thought they wuz all surfers and hippehs.

Oooooh, I'm gonna hafta disagree there.
Rspecially during commutes, and when anybody says the word "overtime."

You need to start your own thread.

Hmmmmm.... I would disagree if I was driving or doing overtime right now.

I noticed that also. I thought gay guys had book smarts. D'UH!!

15 year old eighth grader named LARRY KING!

Uncle Albert wants in on this thread badly.

Start whistlin', pallie!

Yes, if he's strolling in Harlem.

If I understand you correctly, then I agree with you here. I would even go one step further:

1) The term "homophobe" is used to refer to people who dislike gays, whether or not there is fear of them. People defend that usage because it is extremely well-attested.

2) When someone dislikes gays, he is thus called a homophobe. So far, so good.

3) Some people then argue that those who dislike gays do so because they have a hidden fear of them, or of their own supposed latent homosexuality.

And that is where the rules of linguistics are again being disregarded. A person might dislike a homosexual because of his sexual orientation, without being afraid of homosexuality. That does not mean that disliking a person because of their sexual orientation is acceptable, but it does mean that it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with fear. Which is why that third step does not follow logically.

They can't have it both ways, claiming that "homophobe" does not necessarily have anything to do with fear when it is applied to someone for whom there was no indication that they have any particular fear of homosexuality or homosexuals in general, and then claiming that the term does imply fear, even though the person might not admit it.

I have seen that latter arguments used fairly often (in TNZ at least; I can't say for sure that I remember seeing it used here), and it annoys the linguist in me quite as much as the "homophobe isn't appropriate unless you're afraid of gays" argument.

UA musta missed this part.

Nope. I was agreeing with his bothering to post a thought-out response, as opposed to your generic fucking one-liners. Kiss my ass.

Sad.

Don't shoot, Cass!!!

So, is this whole story out? What if this older boy did something bad to the younger one and everyone knew it. What if this was the only choice the younger boy thought he had? Something doesn't seem right about this. The killer might truly be a victim here.

Unless he was defending himself against an immediate, mortal threat, nothing that little punk might have been a "victim" of could possibly excuse this.

You know over 22 years ago when I was in high school, we had some openly gay guys and girls, as well as guys on the down low like Mewa.



And nobody gave them a lot of grief, a little ribbing maybe, but no beating up or anything like that. So if a bunch of Mississippi rednecks from over 20 years ago can be tolerant, dammit I expect you modern day Kalifornians to be even more tolerant!

:reb:

That is your opinion.

Well, picking on a gay kid is one thing, but something else must have went down for a younger boy to walk in a class and blow him away. We might never hear the truth of it.

Some gays can be cruel, sexually aggressive predators.

And yet, "some people just need killin'."

So can heterosexuals.

Or we have heard the whole story and you are in denial.