October 2, 2012
'Faggot' Used 2.5M Times on Twitter Since July
Jason St. Amand READ TIME: 2 MIN.
A website that popped up this week is making headlines for tracking how many times anti-gay slurs are used on Twitter.
Nohomophobes.com features several charts and graphs that track Twitter users who use the words "faggot," "so gay," "no homo" and "dyke," in their tweets. The cleverly named site, also has a live feed that shows the actual homophobic tweets soon after they're made.
As of July 5, 2012, the website claims that "faggot" has been used a staggering 2,538,063 times and counting. Tweeters have used the controversial phrase, "so gay" 906,664 times and "no homo" has been tweeted 832,309 times. "Dyke" has been written 351, 206 times on the social networking website.
The site also breaks down how often the words are used by week and day. During this past week, "faggot" was used 217,699 times and just today, 15,755 times.
According to Pink News, the University of Alberta's Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services, created the online ticket. They said the site is a "social mirror" that reflects the use of anti-gay language used on the Internet.
"We never imagined the scale of casual homophobia that actually exists on social media," Dr. Kristopher Wells, the Institute's associate director, said. "The use of homophobic language remains one of the few socially acceptable forms of discrimination in our society and make no mistake, leads to isolation, bullying, beatings and tragically youth suicide."
Dr. Fern Snart, dean of the Canadian college's faculty of education, said that his faculty are attempting to "creating safer schools and communities for young people."
"The use of homophobic language only serves to hurt, stereotype, and further isolate sexual minority students and we need to take a stand; ignoring such language is not an option," he added.
As Philly Mag reports, the creators of NoHomophobes.com are urging people to use the hashtag, #nohomophobes when they see or experience anti-gay language on Twitter. They say the use of the hashtag will make the social media website a safer place for members of the LGBT community.
"Our use of casual homophobia must end," Wells said. "We are all responsible to put a stop to it. The lives of our youth, and the humanity of our society depends upon it."
