[Ben]

Gay people who say 'gay' *don't* use it as a term of derision. There are plenty of traits overrepresented among gay people -- effemininity, for example -- and the term gains those connotations. 'That hairstyle is really gay', to them, doesn't mean 'that hairstlye sucks' or 'that hairstyle has sex with other hairstyles that are the same gender' but something along the lines of 'that hairstyle reminds me of hairstyles I've seen gay people wear' or even just 'that hairstyle is kind of cool, in a sleek, forward way'. Amomg gay people, in fact, 'gay' is starting to be preferred to 'homosexual', which has something of a medical connotation. This is why we're pissed off when people use it to mean 'crappy' -- especially because its connotations in that usage are exactly the connotations we're trying to detatch from non-heterosexuality (e.g. spectacularly uncool, totally non-self-aware).

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Name : Ben, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Bisexual, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 21, City : Ann Arbor, State : MI Country : United States, Occupation : pizza delivery, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class, 

[Ben]

Keep in mind also that NPR is decentralized; stations decide their own content (though they can by program rights from other stations). The public radio where I live now, in Southeast Michigan, is great; in New York it's terrible.

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Name : Ben, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Bisexual, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 21, City : Ann Arbor, State : MI Country : United States, Occupation : pizza delivery, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class, 

[Ben]

The whole Mongoloid/Caucasiod/Negroid thing is an outdated methodology. People from India aren't any more similar, genetically, to those from Europe as from (for example) China.

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Name : Ben, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Bisexual, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 21, City : Ann Arbor, State : MI Country : United States, Occupation : pizza delivery, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class, 

[Ben]

Most of the gay people I know aren't offended by Will and Grace (though it's caused a friend of mine some problems; one of his female friends basically fell into the 'grace' role and started stalking him). Gay people tend to be somewhat more tolerant of stereotypical gay roles on TV than most other minority groups, at least in some contexts, for several reasons, foremost among which is that sexuality and gender tend to be somewhat linked -- in other words, gay people are more likely to act effeminate than straights. Most gay people were closeted for at least a few years, during which time they repressed any feminine instincts pretty brutally, whether to hide their sexuality from others or because they themselves were ashamed of it. One hallmark of modern gay culture is openness and acceptence of femininitiy as part and parcel with an end to shame and self-loathing. Being offended at Will and Grace means being offended at the notion of not being masculine enough, and many gay people *aren't* particularly masculine, and have learned to accept that. It also worth mentioning that often, when people aren't used to seeing males acting in ways females often do (and vice versa) the sheer overpowering unfamiliarity can mask any other subtleties of what the person's saying/doing. Let go of your instinctual recoil from that stuff and W&G starts to seem a lot more tolerable.

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Name : Ben, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Bisexual, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 21, City : Ann Arbor, State : MI Country : United States, Occupation : pizza delivery, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class, 

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