Hey JONAH, is anyone at the helm of your website home?
I have my doubts for a couple reasons. One is that it appears that the greeting on the main page has only been changed once.
The second and more important reason is because I found a strange menu option when I clicked on “FAQ.” The FAQ provides instant info on why male gays are gay and not straight. Obviously, this does not help lesbians. Not to worry! Simply click on the word “Lez” and you will find an explanation as to why Lesbians are gay and not straight.
Now, I have no problem seeing the word “Lez” or even being referred to as one. Honestly, I prefer the term “queer,” but that’s not the point. The point is that while gays can be referred to in many different terms and phrases – some more derogatory and controversial than others – it is very strange that an organization claiming at least a partially scientific standpoint on homosexuality would resort to using the word “lez” to refer to lesbians. Everywhere else, the site refers to lesbians as “homosexual” or “lesbian.” No other occurrence of the word can be found on their site.
I doubt that any serious pro gay rights blog would use the word “lez,” either – use of slang, derogatory or not, tends to cheapen the tone of an article, and would definitely work against their cause.
So is this a deliberate attempt to denigrate lesbians? I highly doubt it. I think it was just a slip-up, albeit a bigoted one. However, anyone coming across JONAH’s site for help might think, “would I want to seek help from an organization that refers to me as a ‘lez’ in a professional setting?” I recommend that JONAH do a once-over of their site to see if any other mistakes were made – and also to change their greeting more than once a year.
Maybe they feel they are too conservative they wanna sound cool for the next generation, the teens… ya know, the Lez….
It’s a word that people of all ages use in a derogatory fashion. Ex-gay groups also claim to want to “rescue” people from that sort of “false” identity. I believe in my soul that this is the very definition of a Freudian slip.
I think Emily is nit picking. This is a great site. Thank you for the hard work put into this and thank you very much for caring about these issues. Let’s not have divisions among ourselves. It’s time to unite before they have us burning at the stakes.
Emily:
It is an important point you bring up because it would be equally offensive if they used the word “fag” or “queer” in the same situation. I can’t imagine any lesbian willing to be called that by a non-lesbian as a term to distinguish her from others just as I, a gay male, find it offensive when a non-gay person calls me a “fag.”
Love has a language and so does hate. I think many of us know when love is being spoken to us or when it is hate that is speaking in the disguise of love.
Either it doesn’t work on Firefox, or they’ve taken it off, since I don’t get a dropdown menu at all.
Also, I think I rolled my eyes so hard reading the articles on lesbianism that they did a 360. Angry feminists and predatory lesbians and confused girls who think they’re ugly– they sure don’t stint on the stereotypes.
It would appear the people at JONAH read XGW on a regular basis 😉
The link does appear to have been removed. For those who wish to see a working version, here is the Google cached page for as long as it lasts.
Thank you, Emily, for helping JONAH “transition out of” being ugly to others, on their menu anyway.
I’m making a difference! 😀
But, Oh no! How will us Lez’s be able to find help from JONAH?
I had to laugh. When I came out, I took my mother to a PFLAG meeting. Needless to say, it was the last one I took her to. At one point she said “gays and lezees.” You could have heard a pin drop. She meant no harm, and she was nervous. Afterward, I had to explain that it probably was not an effective term.
Why do you “prefer the term queer?” Just curious.
Queer is a term I prefer personally. I use gay. Queer suggests all variations: gay, lesbian, etc. It is also political. Among straight friends or students, I would never use the term queer, but I like the diversity of the term. Queer: anyone who is not straight.
Same applies to the word fag-which i happen to be-and it’s a word that I own. It has nothing to do with personal preference-just like black people own the N word-gays are starting to own FAG more than ever before. Why don’t you stop griping that some weird site uses the word Lez instead of homosexual. I’d declare yourself one big fat proud and happy Lez-f*** the world and what anyone thinks-oh wait-this is queer culture-everyone seems to spend life trying to make a difference in a culture that doesn’t care about anything but themselves.
DATmafia, please try to avoid using that kind of language here. We try to keep the site work safe, which is hard enough considering the way many filters treat our subject matter in the first place. Thanks.
I edited out the one word which would be a problem. Thanks in advance for understanding.
Do you understand that the purpose of this site is exclusively to monitor those “weird sites” and the organizations behind them? For an ex-gay site to use the term “Lez” on their menu, or anywhere else to describe “lesbian” demonstrates a condescending attitude which Emily noticed and reported. The fact that the site in question removed the reference the same day says something about their understanding of it, at least after it was pointed out to them.
Whether some people might like to use this term for themselves or each other within the community is a separate matter.
David is exactly right. The point is not that the word “lez” is something i find so offensive (I mentioned in my article that I don’t care, actually). It’s that a group that is trying to be scientific and woo vulnerable Jewish gays into their hands should not be using slang to describe us. A pro-gay organization would not use the word “lez,” and it would be inappropriate if they did.
Organizations that claim to be professional should keep everything professional. Using the word “lez” is anything but.