Michael S. Lorrey <mike@lorrey.com> wrote:
> Why do they not take back the word fag? (oh, yeah, we don't want to offend
that
> powerful minority, the stick bundlers)....feeling queer is a state of
nausea. I
> want to be able to say "I feel queer" again, instead of having to say in
polite
> company:"Oh shit, I'm gonna blow chunks!"
I have never heard someone say queer is a state of nausea. As I understand it, the word meant weird or different. Being "weird" is not a bad thing, as nobody wants to be boring or normal. We all like to be strange or "special" in some way.
The actual reason that the word "fag", short for "faggot" is derogatory, is that it does indeed refer to the bundle of sticks gathered to be burned. Cigarettes are also called fags in this sense, as well as fire-sticks, for this reason. Calling someone a "faggot" was originally done not primarily toward gays, but to witches or heretics who were expected to eventually be burned at the stake for their blasphemous crimes. Anybody who was an evil or immoral person who was expected to be eventually rounded up by the Church and burned at the stake could be called a "faggot". It basically meant the person was a heretic/antichristian who hadn't been caught and executed by the Church yet.
-- Harvey Newstrom <mailto://newstrom@newstaffinc.com> <http://newstaffinc.com> Author, Consultant, Engineer, Legal Hacker, Researcher, Scientist.