Gay is a positive word!

This morning I along with one of our tax directors were at my buddy Jordan's desk. This tax director is a 40-something hetero man that likes to hunt on the weekends, and I'm pretty sure he has never been around another gay guy before me. The first time I ran into him he called one of my colleagues a derogatory homosexual slur- in front of me! When he found out I was gay he appeared to regret that choice. Over time I actually have grown to appreciate this tax director and I like him as a person. He just is a bit ignorant when it comes to homos.

Today when we were at my buddy Jordan's desk this tax director asked Jordan in a derogatory way: "What's all that gay stuff on your desk?"

I looked at him and said, "Excuse me?"

The tax director apologized, and then he stated in his defense: "You should take it as a compliment when I don't edit my words. I forget that you're gay, and I just treat you like one of the guys."

I told him that he shouldn't change his words based on his audience. He should just remove using the word "gay" as an insult from his vocabulary. I'm gay and I don't like that word to be used as synonym for something negative.

I deal with these types of moments all the time. I have to correct people, because if we don't stand up for the homos in small ways, then who will?