Dan Savage uses "house faggot" on Twitter

Details: Category: LGBT Issues; Published on Thursday, 21 June 2012 19:39; Written by Lara Landis; Hits: 436

Dan Savage recently described members of GOProud as “house faggots”. Many LGBT blogs did not consider the comment to be newsworthy, and the message escaped the attention of Asexual, Transgender, and Bisexual bloggers. Viktor Kearney, a blogger for the Bilerico project, criticized the MTV host for his use of the term in a recent column.

Savage is noted for using this style and is openly Gay. Kearney may have objected to the use of the term, but he intended to criticize a double standard. Members of minorities are allowed to use offensive terms to describe themselves. They are also allowed to use the term to describe other members of the same minority offensively. When an offensive phrase is uttered or written by a figure with a high profile, people may overlook their use of the word.

Analyzing Kearney's motives or analyzing the double standards is interesting, but it is not really the issue. There are Asexual, Transgender and Bisexual bloggers who will look for any reason to criticize Savage, but the remark was made with little forethought. Had he made it in casual speech, he would have offended a few people, but it would have quickly been forgotten. Because he made it on Twitter, it attracted the attention of the Twitter users who follow him. At most, he is guilty of posting a tweet in anger. Savage may or may not have meant it, but he has certainly used the f-word to refer to himself many times.