Gays, Do The Words "Fag" And "Loca" Offend You? GLAAD Says They Do

28 Sep 2011 | 18:14

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Mijos and mijas, you wouldn't believe the morning I've had. You wanna hear about it? No? Well, I'm sequentially telling you about it anyway: 1) I woke up late 2) the line at the coffee shop was REALLY long 3) the newsstand tried to overcharge me for my precious TvNotas 4) I got a complaint from GLAAD for writing "fag" and "loca" on the site. While you may say most of my complaints are trivial -- and they are -- I know the GLAAD complaint is the only one that has any weight and that's what this really long post is about.

Remember last week when I posted about the effeminate Latino that spewed all sorts of Eva Longoria hate? This is what I wrote:

"Eva Longoria confronts a bitchy queen who fags out on her and her supposed self-Mexican hate"

It was followed by this:

"We're guessing that dumb loca never saw those pictures of Eva with Alejandro Fernandez otherwise he'd shut his hole (cause hanging out with other Mexicans means you like being Mexican, right?)."

Again, GLAAD didn't take too kindly to my use of the word "fag" and "loca" and this is what their rep to wrote to the site:

"[Nacomprende] calls the writer [<- guy in the video] a dumb loca which, as you surely know, is a derogatory term for a gay man. Both 'fags out' and 'loca' are defamatory and inappropriate. I know Guanabee has a lot of LGBT visitors and fans and I wonder why the site would choose to alienate them by allowing the use this type of language. We’d like for Guanabee to remove the terms and also apologize to your many LGBT readers."

She's right: Guanabee does have a lot LGBT readers. Why? Because I write stories which some gays find interesting. Why do I write about that? Because I find those stories interesting, too. Am I gay? Well, I own a Cuna De Lobos DVD box set (the Mexican Dynasty). That's like having your inner marica notarized by Walter Mercado herself! But I'm not gonna lie to kick it, so you might as well know I've also had my fill of chuntaras [girls] -- and still do.

I figured that most people who read me must "get me" but that's not be the case. To those people, GLAAD included, I'd like to apologize for offending you. To be honest, nobody but GLAAD has ever complained to us and that's what Daniel, our dearest publisher, told them:

"Thank you for reaching out. As you say, we have many LGBT readers and so far no one has ever complained about our writing they know the tone of the site and they know that we are not using those terms in a derogatory way but more in slang -- they same way that many of them use it."

Daniel is right: locas call locas "loca" all the loca time. I do it, my friends do it, gays I don't know do it (we're talking Spanish-speaking queenas here). Do I find it offensive when other locas call me a "loca"? No. Do I find it offensive when straight men call me a "loca"? Tampoco. You know what, though? I'm aware that not everyone is a hard-boiled bitch like myself. To others, those word may be offensive and they're certainly entitled to feel offended. How come those words don't offend me?

Last week I attended Celebrate Mexico Now's presentation of Mexico Se Escribe Con J. The book, for those who don't know, is about "the contributions of the gay community to Mexican culture." There's fun wordplay in the book's title: "J," or "jota," [Spanish pronunciation of the letter J] is Mexican slang for fag. Michael K. Schuessler, the co-editor of the book who's also a professor of Humanities at the UNAM in Mexico City, was there and, as expected, is very well-versed in the gay Mexican stratosphere. Michael talked about all sorts of interesting gay-related issues which have been conveyed in the book. When he started explaining the book's title and the double entendre behind "jota," Michael also mentioned the appropriation of the term. Just like UK gays appropriated "queer," Mexican gays have, to some extent, appropriated "jota" and all its variations: "joto," "puñal," "puto," "florete," etc. Unlike "queer," we don't see "joto" or "marica" written all over Mexican LGBT pamphlets, but I can assure you this: Mexican gays throw those terms around like they're getting paid to say them. I know this because I've heard strangers call each other these words at places like El Marrakesh and La Purisima, both gay clubs in DF; because in-the-know people like Michael K. Schuessler are talking about it in formal settings; and, lastly, because my own friends call me "puto" ALL THE TIME.

Joto, puto, marica? Yeah, those are mine now. And they can be yours, too! Shit, maybe they already are.

Of course that everything you've been reading -- and claps to you if you've read this far down -- is my own opinion. You may have noticed I'm not writing in the royal "we" which is the Guanabee standard. Many of you, just like GLAAD did after we last responded to them, probably don't agree with me -- and that's swell! Everyone should have an opinion about everything, right? So what do you think? Can you relate to us? Maybe you wanna compare my rants and GLAAD's to the ones of black culture and the "n" word? It's ridiculously similar! Try it.

UPDATE: It seems a lot of you didn't catch one important element on here: I'm bi! Or, to keep up the Mexican joto slang rolling, bicicleto.

What do you think?

LOL
CHISPAS
AY DIOS MIO
QUE CUTE
NERDO
NACO
CURSI
QUE COOL

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culture, gays, glaad, lgbt, mexico se escribe con j, michael k. schuessler

Comments

StyleGuydLA September 28, 2011

I believe I got offended by you once, but once I began reading more and more of your articles, I began getting you. Suffice it to say, I'm not offended anymore. In fact, I laugh at your loca, chola-like rants.
Reply

Rosa September 28, 2011

i have been offended by your writting and i was VERY offended by your "fags out" comment. i have also been very offended by the way you use "loca" and "b--ch" and all those words you love to throw around. i have commented before (and i know others have too) and you just keep being offensive any damn way. so to say that no one has ever complained is nothing but a lie and without any journalistic integrity. i used to recommend this site to a great deal of people before, but now, i just check it and leave it alone. this site used to be balanced by other writers as well, but it seems that most of the articles are yours. this is now Nacomprende's blog, not what it used to be. sad. the worst part of your ignorance is that you defend it with even more ignorance. the saddest part is that all of your homophobia is really rooted in misogyny and you don't even get it. i've noticed you like to choose topics where you like to call women Bi--es and Perras and all that. your classic "we" is never appreciated when you write derrogatory things about anyone. it just seems like you're trying to diffuse responsability for your crap. if you're gonna be an ignorant AH, at least OWN it and dont' try to say that Mexicans and whoever reclaimed words and such. do you even understand what "RE-claim" means? with friends like you, we don't need enemies. like for you to say that your rants are like the black community using the "N" word but that's just not true because you're not gay, you're not a woman, so then you're just a jerk! a person that is NOT from the black community using the Nefarious word towards and about black people is just blatantly racist and not actually an ally. similarly, i don't think you have any right or reason to use those terms except to be blatantly demeaning. have you ever noticed how when there's claims of racism, there's always a blond and blue eyed spokes person that comes to deny the claim? this is what you sound like with your article. and the way that you try to make yourself a poor sap that GLAAD pounced on is dumb. you wrote it, either own it or apologize. stop trying to make yourself the missunderstood champion of gays and women. and stop tying to act like you represent all of us. you DO NOT. Good for GLAAD!!!! Guanabee is becoming Guana-go and forget about this site. it had such promise, too.
Reply

Daniel Mauser September 29, 2011

Guys, Clearly this caused quite a stir among you. Guanabee is about entertaining our users and we have never meant to single out anybody or offend anyone. If some of you have been hurt by the words that you read in some of our articles, we apologize. I apologize to you as the publisher of the site. Most of our users can agree that the tone of the site is humorous and sarcastic and occasionally words like these, which are used in slang make their way into the writing. If you feel offended by what we read here you are free to call us out on it. In fact, if some of you were offended by the Eva Longoria piece it would have been great for you guys to speak up. It's sad that it took an organization like GLAAD to give us feedback on this. We decided to approach the subject head on and put the topic up for discussion up on the board. Now many of you are taking it as an opportunity to call us out on it as if you have caught this on the first place. I am not going to start a debate about this specific comment on this post if it will deal with personal accusations. However, if you guys would like to provide feedback as to how you would like to see the site tackle on stories like these please let us know. Which words in your mind are Ok and which ones are not? Best, Daniel
Reply

iLogico September 29, 2011

aye dios mio. no mamen. anyone that takes offense to this obviously needs to get with the program. ever hear of tongue-in-cheek?? you locas (guanabee) keep doing your thang.
Reply

iLogico September 29, 2011

i forgot to mention that i found perezhilton's harassment of celebrities for their supposed homosexuality. did glaad go after him? nope. he's stopped doing it but still. ok that's all i have to say. can't we all just get along now? anyone up for flan?
Reply

iLogico September 30, 2011

i actually don't like flan. lol.
Reply
- StyleGuydLA October 11, 2011
  
  Ewww... yo tambien.
  Reply

Valerie October 3, 2011

You don't have to be gay to be in the gay parade! Chooooooooowww! Keep on keeping on Guanabee! Love you guys...but would like to see Cindy more often around here! :)
Reply

vero October 5, 2011

queers have the right to take back derogatory terms used against us. locas unite!
Reply

jrod October 5, 2011

As long as gays use these terms to describe ourselves, then you really can't get all butt hurt when someone else uses them because we opened you the for it.
Reply