In a recent post of mine titled "Name-calling and moving forward," I discussed why persons would benefit from removing name-calling from conversations because language is important, a genuine conversation in which persons are receptive to others' thoughts is unlikely when name-calling is introduced, and it reeks of disrespect. Although the post largely focused on comments relating to the words 'douchebag' and 'asshat' from bloggers Stephanie Zvan (Almost Diamonds blog) and Jason Thibeault (Lousy Canuck blog) -- writing on the Freethought Blogs network -- another really interesting comment was made from Jason in which Jason seemed to make a homophobic comment in a discussion pertaining to sexual harassment and language that had nothing to do with sexuality. After I asked for clarification on the blog comments pertaining to why this comment was made (and more recently in Twitter), there was seemingly no defense...or perhaps even a 'double-down.'
Jason Thibeault, in comment 54 in the "The Grothebot 5000 meme" thread, in what seems to be responses in which he defends calling D.J. Grothe a 'douchebag,' writes (as seen in the picture above),
DJ Grothe is not LITERALLY a douchebag, as he does not store vinegar or other potentially harmful chemicals in his person for the purposes of "cleansing" a woman's vagina. In fact, I hear he wants little to do with women's vaginas.Following this comment, in what ended up being comment 63, I wrote,
Jason, in comment 65 -- lacking an apology or something like "I didn't mean to attack DJ for being gay or make a negative comment about him being gay" (which one might perhaps reasonably expect) -- writes,
Interesting. Apparently, then, if DJ mentions his being gay as what Jason calls a "preemptive defense" and "blatent pandering" ...it's perfectly to make a really off-color and what seems to be a homophobic comment about DJ wanting "little to do with women's vaginas?" Previous to comments 54, 63, and 65, I did not see how DJ's sexuality was relevant (or that it was even brought up) to discussion of sexual harassment and DJ's responses regarding such.
I and others -- I am sure -- would really like some clarification from Jason on why DJ's sexuality was brought up in this matter absent from what was said. An apology, too, should also be in order.
One hour ago, at the time of this posting -- similar to what I posted in Jason's thread -- I sent a Tweet to Jason asking for some clarification..:
Russel Blackford might have also picked up on the comment from Jason. If he didn't, I'm sure he'd be in agreement:
If you'd like Jason to provide an answer and hopefully an apology, consider tweeting
Is @lousycanuck mocking D.J. Grothe for being gay? http://bit.ly/JX5gyw - comment 54. Comment 65 didn't help either. #lgbt #skeptic #atheismOr with this post included:
http://bit.ly/KixKiQ @lousycanuck - Homophobic comment about @DJGrothe? #lgbt #skeptic