A Web site launched to track the use of homophobic words on Twitter has revealed some startling statistics.
NoHomophobes.com launched by The Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services (iSMSS) at the University of Alberta in July has tracked over 2.5 million uses of the word “faggot,” nearly 1 million uses of “so gay” or “no homo,” and almost 350,000 uses of “dyke.”
Responding to the data collected so far Dr. Kristopher Wells, associate director for iSMSS said, “We never imagined the scale of casual homophobia that actually exists on social media. 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. We are all responsible to put a stop to it. The lives of our youth and the humanity of our society depends upon it.”
Wells said his team’s agenda isn’t to focus on individual Tweets or Twitter users, but simply to demonstrate the “astonishing” frequency in which anti-gay language is used in everyday conversation.
