Plumbing the depths of Joe the Plumber's "dictionary

[Ronald Butters]

Sambolin is just playing word games. Of course "queer" was no slur in "Isn't it strange, isn't it queer, you on the ground, me in the air, send in the clowns." But it was a slur if written on the subway wall in a sentence such as "I hate queers," or even "Jimmy is a queer." Even "Jimmy is soooo queer" could be a slur, and "queer-bashing" presents as the quotation of a slur.


On Mar 9, 2012, at 5:36 AM, Victor Steinbok wrote:

> http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0312/73772.html
>>
>> Things only got worse when Sambolin cited some of Wurzelbacher's
>> previous statements about homosexuality, including his claim that the
>> word "queer" is not a slur, as well as his declaration that he would
>> not allow homosexuals "anywhere near my children."
>>
>> "Have you changed your positions on this at all?" Sambolin asked.
>>
>> "So this is TMZ, this isn't CNN, is what you're saying," Wurzelbacher
>> shot back.
>>
>> "Of course it's CNN. These are things that you said, that I would like
>> to know if you still stand by them or if you have changed your
>> positions on them."
>>
>> "Listen, in my dictionary, and everyone's dictionary in the 1970s, the
>> word queer did mean strange and unusual. There was no slur to it. Do
>> you challenge that?" the congressional candidate said, before adding,
>> "Come on, you're trying to do a 'gotcha' moment, it's quite obvious."
>>
>
>    VS-)
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org