But I'll waste a post rebutting the claim of "homophobia".
Because the word has been used as an insult long before gay pride, or the general acknowledgement that gay was anything more than another personal preference.
I think you need to explain why I'm toxic... an 'eruption'... a 'hippie' (Hippie insults a whole subculture of people that would seek to be accepted.)
<...> ornament or join (fabric) by faggot stitch; "He fagotted the blouse for his wife" fasten together rods of iron in order to heat or weld them fagot: offensive terms for an openly homosexual man bind or tie up in or as if in a faggot; "faggot up the sticks" fagot: a bundle of sticks and branches bound together wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
A faggot is a kind of pork meatball, a traditional dish in parts of the UK, especially Wales and the Black Country. It was originally made from unwanted off-cuts of meat (typically a blend of sausage meat and offal, especially Liver). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faggot_(food)
In modern American and Canadian usage faggot or fag is a generally pejorative term for gay men. The origins of the word in this sense have been clouded by mythology. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faggot_(slang)
A faggot is an archaic imperial unit applied to collections of stick en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faggot_(unit_of_measurement)
in homophobic usage, a slang term of abuse denoting (in general) a gay man, but connoting (in particular) the gender image of male wimpiness or effeminacy. In the rhetoric of Gay Liberation, it has been reappropriated as a term of pride signifying a gay man who openly defies the conventionally shameful implications of the term. Some people think that the use of the term derives from the medieval practice of burning sodomites at the stake using bundles of sticks called "faggots. ... familypride.uwo.ca/glossary/glossary5.html
a stack of spilt and salted cod-fish at various stages of the drying process. collections.ic.gc.ca/baccalieutrail/dictionary.htm
Find definitions of Faggot in: English French Russian all languages <...>
What does it mean to you? Why are you so touchy? Homocentric? Do I need to be more effeminate before I have license to use the word? Is there a card that's issued? Why do think I'm NOT one?
As jwanzala mentioned in another thread: "I see you are as smug as usual about this..." ...and that...
Leigh