CM, I agree with you. “Poo pusher” is an unpleasant playground insult for gay men, and I think it has no place on here. Mods, I think you made the wrong call by letting it go.
I’m a teacher. Playground homophobia is thankfully dying. The kids in my fairly rough-arsed West Yorkshire school rarely use “gay” epithets as terms of abuse. There are even gay students and teachers who are “out”.
I think the attitudes that see “poo pusher” as acceptable public discourse only exist now among the middle-aged. Once we’re gone, perhaps gay people can enter a public conversation, in person or online, without running the risk of hearing strangers making crude jokes about their [assumed] sex lives. When that day comes, perhaps the rates of depression and suicide among gay people will decrease.
Unfortunately, CM, most people are very conservative by nature and will instinctively wish to preserve the status quo. So when you take a stand, some will try to accuse you of hypocrisy, or of being “PC”, or of being unable to take a “joke”. Others will try to muddy the waters by altering reality, suggesting that what was said was never said, or that x actually means y. But most will diminish your point by simply jeering from the sidelines.
We had this on a transgender thread a few months back. A simple news story about not referring to TG people by their birth gender attracted exactly the same pattern of responses you’ve been getting here.
