If anti-homophobia groups want to be taken seriously, they might want to consider proper grammar. After all, how are we supposed to know what we can and cannot say as a – what?
Well, I guess it’s obvious to the likes of you that this isn’t a matter of sexual orientation, but a matter of language. You see, I saw a sign posted by a GSA group that said this:
‘This is a Homophobia Free Zone.’ What punctuation mark is missing? well, I hope that you’ve guessed by now that it was the – brace yourselves – hyphen. It ought to say, ‘This is a Homophobia-Free Zone.’ Currently, the sign implies that in this particular zone, we are distributing homophobia for free, so come one come all and get some!
Of course there are some people who insist that signs like this are more clear to the public, even though they say ‘No Dogs Please,’ when in fact dogs really do please. Or how about this one: ‘No Smoking Food, Drinks Photography or Pets.’ The way it is now states that it’s not okay to smoke your food, but you can smoke cigarettes or eat food if you’d like. It is, however, not okay to take pictures of drinks, but if you’re thirsty, don’t hesitate to have a drink yourself. No pets.
Winston Churchill said that we must not try to embalm the language. I agree completely. Although Ben Elton still uses ‘inasmuch’ (and I do, too), it is not in the norm of modern English. We don’t, after all, write ‘to-morrow’ or ‘whence’ anymore, do we? Well, if punctuation really does come to a ‘full stop’, then may all the “texters” of the world have their satellites fail and be forced to rely on type setting once again, just as I do.
Good luck with the homophobia, I hope you manage to give a lot away.
Isabel
