The comedian Louis CK said something about that matter as a joke,but i find it really suiting for the people who wrote that it's up to the GM's personal opinion. He said that if he stumbled across two gay guys in the street,doing their thing,he wouldn't have any problem with it. But if one of them will suddenly stop and say something arrogant like "people from Phoenix are Phoenicians" he scream at him "Shut up" and add a slur to the word gay(hint:starts with an "f"). That means,when I call someone "gay",I don't mean "oh,you like other men",i mean "oh,you act in a certain way that reminds me of a gay person" without actually referring to his/her sexual preference,just his way of behaving. I have gay friends that even uses that word the same way,so i don't think people should get so offended by that word.
I'll offer up my two cents: The phrase "that's gay" used to express negativity that isn't targeted at one person specifically is so commonly used - at least where I live - that, as Marty said earlier, many gay people aren't really offended by it anymore. It's not directed at anyone in particular, and I've never actually seen anyone outside of Royals be offended by it in the first place. That being said, it's well within anyone's rights to report it. Now to my other point... This doesn't mean report it just because you can. Let the people who are actually offended do the reporting. Don't report simply to get the other banned; that's unhealthy for the community and just creates more problems. I don't want to feel like I'm walking on thin ice whenever I say anything in the FM.
In many cultures the words 'gay' or 'gaaaaaay' and the phrase "that's gay" are used not to point out something bad or defamatory against any single homosexualitet or homosexuals as a group but something that's different from the norm. Also as it has been pointed out the word it self menas happy, also in this case describing someone different from the norm.
And that's where my problem lies. It wasn't used in an offensive way and I see nothing bannable said by that person, thus I assume they were banned because one of the staff doesn't like the word gay, or because of what their friend said - which wouldn't make any sense. If you're going to have words bannable in a non-offensive context, ie. regardless of context, then it's not really fair unless you add it to the T&C explicitly.
Saying "That's gay" is generally a negative connotation, considering their line of conversation it's pretty safe to assume that was the desired meaning so yes, it was used in an offensive way.
I think there's a flaw in this rule, which also applies here. It's asked to provide atleast one unedited and entire screenshot, but since you have the ability to show the portion of your chat you want, you can in fact edit the screenshot a bit. Doing so, important information could be missing. In many cases the context of the certain words is important. And as always; It's possible though, sadly.
Not when it's not pointed at you. That's gay. The word that isn't pointed at a human being, just saying... And as has been mentioned before more than once, it's often just meant to describe something that's unorthodox in a way, so isn't the norm, so to speak. There's a distinct difference... And @Gi, wise words, my man. Wise words. There should be a rule saying all screenshots based on chat evidence should include a full-size chat box (so 2 screenshots, since you can still scroll up/down a bit).
So things arnt negative as long as it's not directed at you...And you just prooved my point, saying it like that means it's something abnormal something not ok, like there is something wrong with it. Which is NOT OK. You're basically saying to be gay is to be abnormal, sub human. not deserving of basic courtesy.
I'm on a cell phone at the moment, so forgive my inability to quote the post in question, but it was mentioned earlier in this thread that gay people use the word gay to describe themselves, therefore they must be insensitive to the word. Looking at when the statement in question "that's gay" is used, it's clear that it is used to describe something unexpected that upsets them. The servery at school isn't serving cookies today? That's gay. Your mate lost his bus pass and couldn't bring his movie to the party? That's gay. Do you see where I'm going with this? Just because the word gay is used by gay people does not mean that it's acceptable to use it in vain. The use of the word gay can be both acceptable and unacceptable depending on the context in which it is used. And as such, and bans based on the use of the word have always been and likely will continue to be based on the judgement of the responding GM.