Foul

Andy wrote a while ago about how we hate when people use the word gay as a synonym for stupid or weak or weird. We hear it all the time in public, like every other gay person, and not just from teenagers. Many who do this claim it's not meant to slur actual gay people, because they're not using the word to refer to someone or something that is actually homosexual. Um, ok. Is that sorta like saying it's ok to call someone a n----- if they're not actually black?

The whole argument is rendered bogus by signs and t-shirts Chicago Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper saw at the Sox-Cubs game last weekend. The word gay isn't used, but the two male pictograms holding hands under a rainbow make the message clear: Cubs fans are gay. And not just in the stupid or weak or weird sense, but in the literal sense as well. Cubs fans like holding hands with men under rainbows. Cubs fans are fags.

Well, sports fans are assholes. OK, that's wrong, because Alex and Andy are sports fans, too, and in a city renowned for its vicious fandom. Booing Santa is one thing, but this element of jock culture is bullshit. We get it: trash talk is about cutting your opponent down, and in a testosterone-fueled battle that usually means attacking his "manhood". Fine, play your little reindeer games, but leave us and our lives out of it. It would be nice if the assholes selling this crap realized their market of sports fans actually includes gay people, but clearly they're going for the lowest common denominator.

We'd expect as much from the mouth-breathers in the nose-bleed seats, but Roeper claims some of the people displaying this image may actually be liberals who support gay rights, which is what really disturbs us. This kind of casual homophobia (and don't tell us it's not) from people who should "know better" is what keeps this bigotry alive. Kids see and hear it from their parents, and mimic it on the playground, and another generation of gay kids grows up thinking they're stupid, weak and weird.