A different (but not dissimilar) background exists for “moron”, but I’m sure you don’t need that story as well. Why else would you have brought it up?

As for all the thumbs down…really, what are we objecting to here? I mean, is the pejorative use of GAY really that important to the English language? Are we so homophobic that we really think gay people are all stupid? Or do we just want to avoid admitting to ourselves that something that we’ve used so commonly in the past could really be insulting and insensitive to a significant portion of the general public?

Even someone that does not agree with me…you must see the difference between this and the Kobe & Noah incidents, right?

It’s probably because I have good friends and family members who are gay and who I love. Though if I were gay, I’d feel the same way and I don’t think there would be anything embarrassing about it.

Why am I so offended? Because what was written was offensive. Perhaps a better question is, why are you not?

There’s a pretty good chance that this player is already signed to a pro contract, and maybe even in the majors right now.

why is it funny. explain it to me.

As for Jeff Francoeur…You’re comparing apples and oranges. If Francoeur asked fans to stop calling him Frenchy, I absolutely would. Or if Frenchy was being used to denote something stupid or lame, I absolutely would (especially given how easy it would be to simply apply the name for a lame player to everything that is lame. As it is, he seems to like the name, and it’s only being used to refer to him, I see nothing wrong with it. I do, however, see something incredibly wrong with using the word for one group of people to mean lame or stupid. Indeed, substitute in the word “Jew” into the phrase, “that’s so gay” and tell me that it’s not offensive.

I don’t take joking about what someone is so lightly anymore. You never know who is on the edge or what it would take to push them over. Yes this was between two friends, but it was done in front of thousands of fans. Even in private it would be tasteless, but in public it is far worse. Who knows how many thousand children saw it and the 3-5% of them who will discover that they are homosexual as they reach maturity will somewhere have it in the back of thier mind that they are indeed the butt of a bad joke to a lot of people.

Common, please refrain from all future uses of the word “Frenchy” when referring to Jeff Francoeur. As a person of French descent I find it offensive when that word is used in a derogatory manner. Or we can all grow up a little bit, realize it wasn’t said with malice (see: Kobe and Noah) and move on.

Oh, and can somebody please explain why Frenchy didn’t win the fan vote? Seriously, the guy has a fan base in 3 markets and he misses the game!

“These days playfully calling someone gay is like calling them a dork or a nerd. That is how the English language has evolved. Deal with it.”

This situation is unacceptable because being gay doesn’t mean you are automatically stupid. It is shameful that it has indeed come to mean that, and that’s why we should try to marginalize such usage. In the future, people are not going to be calling each other gay when they really mean stupid, because it is not acceptable to stereotype all gay people as stupid. From that vantage point, your comment will be seen as representative of a part of history in which the oppression and mistreatment of gay people was still relatively accepted by mainstream society.

As for the “Deal with it” sentiment, I echo it completely – we need to deal with this, by publicly acknowledging that it is an unacceptable use of the word gay. Next time, Beckham will write GETZ IS AN IDIOT GB in the sand and no one will care. Hopefully, other ballplayers (and professional athletes) will take note and small steps will be taken in the right direction towards a more open and accepting society.

That’s what jackasses say so that they don’t have to stop acting like jackasses. In reality, we censor our speech all the time, based on the situations in which we find ourselves. You talk to your boss differently than you talk to your friend, and you talk to a crowd differently than you would your child. If there ever was a time to censor yourself, and to not act like an idiot, it’s in the middle of a baseball diamond with a crowd of 35,000 people watching.

“I think that if people are getting mad at Beckam for playfully calling his friend gay, what are they saying about gay people?”

First, this sentence makes no sense, but I know what you’re trying to say. I think that people mad at Beckham are saying that they don’t think gay people should have to endure a word that defines them used as an insult. And yes, language changes, but it’s ok to push for language to change differently than it currently seems to be.

Finally, I hope all of this is clear, because I have a hard time communicating with anyone who cannot identify sarcasm.

This “incident,” if one wants to refer to it as that, is simply one friend playfully making a joke with a friend. It is, and should be considered a nonissue. If you want to be the PC police, go right on ahead…

Judging Beckam’s intelligence and baseball prowess with information from this story is stupid, but you have the right to your opinion. If you want to insult his baseball prowess, there are plenty of statistics out there for you to call him out as a dork or a geek.

Act like you had some home training people.