on the question of naming things

[Nelson Lund]

I'm not sure you're right, Brad. Part of the agenda pursued by some 
seems to be a form of moral bullying in which those who use neutral, 
non-judgmental terms like "homosexual" are accused of being 
"homophobes," so that they and others will be pressured to use 
alternative terms that connote approval of homosexual behavior. This 
kind of bullying certainly is and should be legal in a free society, 
whether or not it effectively advances the agenda of those who use the 
technique. But I'm not sure it's "perfectly legitimate."

Nelson


Bradford P. Wilson wrote:

> I've been following the discussion of whether the use of the term 
> "homosexual" is pejorative, or whether it isn't but shouldn't be used 
> because of current sensibilities of many people whom the term 
> accurately describes, and so forth.  It may be that there's a 
> generational consideration here.  Someone mentioned the 
> "old-fashioned" way of putting things.  If the use by old-fashioned 
> people (e.g, older people) is innocent of moral baggage, it's hard to 
> get in high dudgeon about it, isn't it?  My roommate and best friend 
> in college, when he had gained my confidence, let me in on his secret, 
> describing himself as homosexual.  This was circa 1970.  I don't 
> believe he would today take offense at his self-description.  I rather 
> think it the better word to use in a juridical context in which the 
> judge does not think it proper to comment on the morality of the 
> person or the behavior being described.  Here is the OED on 
> "homosexual":  
>  
> A. adj. Involving, related to, or characterized by a sexual propensity 
> for one's own sex; of or involving sexual activity with a member of 
> one's own sex, or between individuals of the same sex.
>  
> No doubt many of you are familiar with DuBois's letter to young Roland 
> Barton in 1928, when DuBois was 60 years old (and old fashioned?), 
> defending the use of the word "Negro".  He acknowledged that there 
> were historical reasons for Barton to dislike the word.  Still, given 
> the "wide and continued use" that has rendered in the course of time 
> many a customary name accurate, "'Negro' is quite as accurate, quite 
> as old and quite as definite as any name of any great group of people."
>  
> How does he conclude?  "Get this then, Roland, and get it straight 
> even if it pierces your soul: A Negro by any other name would be just 
> as black and just as white; just as ashamed of himself and just as 
> shamed by others, as today.  It is not the name--it's the Thing that 
> counts.  Come on, Kid, let's go get the Thing!"  That's not advice for 
> the judge, in my opinion.  But it is advice for those with an agenda 
> that it is perfectly legitimate to pursue in a free society (as 
> Justice Scalia makes clear in his dissent in Lawrence).  Brad Wilson
>
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