I agree that one should not use language likely to offend others on the grounds of sex, sexuality, gender identification, race, religion, physical appearance etc.<p>I don't really like the tone of this article though - why <i>must</i> I know and repudiate a short and odd list of derogatory terms? And who decides what the "proper term" for a particular group is? Is each group uniform in their preference? Or is the author stereotyping people?<p>Whilst this article might help raise awareness, there is no substitute for being a decent person, and thinking for yourself before opening your mouth.
I've got a good number of gay friends so:<p>Queer isn't actually offensive today to "all" gays. There are popular gay/lesbian magazines that use that name in Germany, [1] and [2]<p>Queen: don't forget drag queens which doesn't necessarily have a negative connotation<p>[1] <a href="http://inqueery.de" rel="nofollow">http://inqueery.de</a> [2] <a href="http://queer.de" rel="nofollow">http://queer.de</a>
It is laughable that matters like this get flagged to oblivion and disappear from the frontpage, especially considering how important they are in many ways.<p>I wish I had more than one upvotes.