[quote=@Hjalti]
[@MoiraEl] Wait... So what words would you use to describe bisexual, asexual, heterosexual and pansexual? Homosexual is just a blanket term for gay or lesbian, since both are (for the most part) separated by gender. i.e. You're likely to meet a lesbian woman, but not a lesbian man. So instead of referring to two friends as "the gay guy and the lesbian chick" you could just say "The homosexual ones" or shorten it to homo, just like with hetero, bi or pan.

Words can take on whole new meanings after periods of time. The simplest example is how "fag" was the term used to refer to a bundle of sticks typically used to burn homosexuals at the stake. But now a word that was literally used to describe sticks is seen as offensive (much the same as the Italian word for "black"), while others like "buff" (which originally meant nude) or referring to someone as "black" are not. Hell, "dick" used to just be a shortened form of Richard and "African-American" is now being considered offensive!

The only way words become or indeed [i]remain[/i] offensive is if you keep considering them as such or using them in an offensive manner.
[/quote]

I feel like language would be in a lot better shape if people didn't get triggered so much by words