Arabic Words for 'Gay' Need to Be Better than 'Pervert' or 'Deviant'

The Atlantic ^ | Steve Clemons

[fidelis]

The article is about the Arabic language. Many people on this thread are presuming all Arabs or Arabic speaking people are Moslem. They are not. Many, in fact, are Christians.

[BobL]

“Arabic Words for ‘Gay’ Need to Be Better than ‘Pervert’ or ‘Deviant’”

Why?

[The_Media_never_lie]

So, what is this author going to do about it?

[the OlLine Rebel]

Actually it means merry. Jolly. Not simple happy.

[j.havenfarm]

Are you saying that pussy hats and candlelight vigils are unlikely to bring about change in the Islamic world?

[nagant]

There’s no such thing as “being gay”.

[Ransomed]

What do Arabic speaking Christians call homosexuals? Is it any different that what the Muslims use or what?

Freegards

[dfwgator]

[the OlLine Rebel]

Fine. Good for them, too.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Shhhh. It’s a secret.

[the OlLine Rebel]

It’s mostly a).

Honestly, the issue is never the issue. Its about ushering in communism above all.

If Moslems don’t toe all the liberal lines, then they will simply be ignored until useful.

[metmom]

Other commenters on the Mokrani thread wrote that Arabic also tends to describe gays as deviants -- using words like "munharif" and "shadh."

Even a stopped clock……

[The Antiyuppie]

Now that they have destroyed the Western European languages, they are moving on to the others.

[hanamizu]

“...Arabic also tends to describe gays as deviants...”

---

OK, I understand that ‘deviant’ has a negative connotation, but doesn’t it come from the word deviate? Don’t homosexuals deviate from the norm?

[doorgunner69]

Sounds like they have is accurate, what is the issue?

[Dr. Sivana]

Don’t homosexuals deviate from the norm?

Homosexuals deny there is a norm. They would maintain their status is no different than someone with red hair . . . uncommon, but not abnormal.

This requires them to define the value of sexual activity only in terms of pleasure and perceived self-fulfillment. I have used the term pervert raising my children, as it covers not just homosexuals, but trans-everything and fetishists etc.

The term also assumes that there is a proper purpose for sexual activity, and that perverts distort and warp that purpose.

[toddausauras]

Ok I volunteer to go to the Arab world to spread that message and I’ll have 40 or 50 pigs (via cargo plane) with me to introduce pork into their diet as well. Will I be welcomed?

[jz638]

The article is about the Arabic language.

The article claims to be about the Arabic language, but it's really about gay activism. There is no single Arabic language in practical terms. There's a collection of about a dozen dialects and a sort of de facto standard dialect that is mostly used for training non-Arabic speakers in a sort of standard way. Each dialect reflects the people who speak it, and they each have their own slang and borrow words from other languages like English and French as they find them useful.

What the author really wants to convey is that Arabic speakers are mean to people with alternative lifestyles and if they would stop using negative terms for gay/same-sex/queer/etc... people, maybe they would stop throwing them off buildings. I wonder if it dawned on the writer that there's not even really a standard "word for gay" in English thanks to the alphabet people and the resulting tribalism. I wonder if that little tidbit is lost on the author.

[NetAddicted]

Exactamundo.

[NetAddicted]

Send this to the Atlantic.