January 10, 2013 | Sex & Society

Canadian PSA asks why the word 'faggot' is okay

The University of Alberta's Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services is continuing its No to Homophobes campaign, and one of its first PSAs asks why the word “faggot” can be so casually used in society.

The video covers several offensive words with a bleep until a woman says “gay faggot.” The advert then asks “when will homophobic language be unacceptable too?”

Last year the same campaign revealed that “faggot” was used more than 2.5 million times between July and September 2012 by Twitter users. In just one week, it was in 219,000 tweets.

“We no longer tolerate racist language, weʼre getting better at dealing with sexist language, but sadly we still see and hear homophobic and transphobic language in our society," said Dr Kristopher Wells. “While this language might not always be meant to be hurtful, we must not forget that words like ‘faggot’ contribute greatly to the continued alienation and isolation of sexual and gender (LGBTQ) people, especially our youth.”