NY court: No slander in falsely calling person gay

I'm sorry...wtf are these people smoking...yes being gay isn't negative thank you for accepting that. But I still think calling someone gay (whether meaning gay or stupid) is still ridiculous because it's still insinuating something someone is not...I don't know if people will agree with me here, because I know this is sort of a touchy subject...but just how I feel.

 

Is it slander to call someone black or a woman? I don't know why anyone would want a term that describes them to be considered some insult that people throw around at each other. This is a good step towards normalizing the word.

 

I spose, the point I was making though was that someone was using it to call someone else "gay" who wasn't. So okay I'll rescind my comment about the judges, I guess they were right. The people to criticize here are more the girlfriend and the guy for taking the word gay AS an insult. >_>

 

It sounds like basically the judge is telling everyone to just grow up and move on. The whole notion of thinking of being gay as a personal insult is rather childish.

 

Yeah, see if the article were written in that terms, I wouldn't have said anything but for the couple to grow up lol

 

It can only be slander if people can reasonably believe it, but it isn't true, and it's defamatory.

I don't know--I don't think being gay should be considered negative, obviously. But I do think it could be damaging to someone if people believed a false accusation of being gay, insofar as it could have an effect on the person's ability to have straight relationships. As we all know, being gay is not so acceptable to society that people are all able to easily accept their true sexual orientation, and straight people know this. So, if there is a rumor that someone is gay, and they deny it, many people will believe that they are closeted and in denial, rather than being straight. And if they believe that, they won't want to date the person.

So, I do think that people should be held accountable for spreading harmful lies, even if they aren't necessarily defamatory.

 

insulting and slanderous is different i guess

 

The problem with that is granting a slander case requires that what was said is libelous. The court doesn't operate on some mystical dualism wherein something can be defamatory and acceptable. It's one or the other, and in this case I'll opt for the other.

 

I understand the impulse to not want to be called something you aren't. But a larger part of me thinks that this is absolutely fantastic. I tell my straight, male friends this all the time: you shouldn't get so defensive if somebody calls you gay. Correcting them is fine, but when you do so with such intense emotion, it either makes people question your sexuality even more, or makes you seem homophobic. Somebody mistaking you for a gay man is not the most insulting thing ever. In fact, it's a good thing. You aren't the stereotypical straight college guy...be proud of that!