News and Commentary

LGBT Websites Now Say ‘Sexual Preference’ Is An Offensive Term. They Were Fine With It Last Month.

   DailyWire.com
Multiracial gay couple holding hands in Brooklyn - stock photo
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After Judge Amy Coney Barrett used the phrase “sexual preference” during her Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Democrats rushed to condemn the term and claim it was outdated and “offensive.”

LGBT websites jumped on the phrase as well, when as recently as last month they didn’t seem to have any issue with the term.

On September 25, one of the leading LGBT publications, The Advocate, published an interview with the cast from “Julie and the Phantoms,” in which filmmaker Kenny Ortega, who directs the show and is openly gay, uses the term.

“To come from that history to be able to now, as a director, be telling these stories that aren’t even about coming out — that are about young people who are just comfortable with who they are, no matter what their sexual preference is. It’s just glorious and so satisfying,” Ortega said in the interview.

Nowhere in the article does anyone claim “sexual preference” is an offensive term. Yet, below the article are links to recent stories from the same publication, including a recent story claiming Barrett was “blasted” for using “anti-LGBTQ+ term ‘sexual preference.’”

Here’s what Barrett said when asked if she “would be a consistent vote to roll back hard-fought freedoms and protections for the LGBT community”:

“I do want to be clear that I have never discriminated on the basis of sexual preference and would not ever discriminate on the basis of sexual preference. Like racism, I think discrimination is abhorrent.”

The Advocate then claimed the “term ‘sexual preference,’ while accepted decades ago, is now considered inaccurate and offensive by LGBTQ+ people because of its implication that people choose their sexual orientation or gender identity.”

LOGOtv, a channel geared toward the LGBT community, on September 20 tweeted out an article from LGBT website NewNowNext with a quote from the article saying, “Now, I’m far more attracted to men than women, but who’s to say my sexual preference won’t sway again?” The channel made no claim that the phrase was offensive at that time.

On October 13, LOGOtv quote-tweeted MSNBC producer Kyle Griffin’s tweet alleging “sexual preference” was an “offensive term” and added a link to the channels “guide to Amy Coney Barrett’s anti-LGBTQ track record,” along with an angry emoji.

In addition to The Advocate and LOGOtv, British LGBT website Pink News also had no issue with the term in April 2019, when the outlet used a quote from a 21-year-old who told the Associated Press: “Kissing someone is no crime. All we want is for there to be less divisions in this society, and no discrimination against people over their sexual preferences.”

Pink News did not at that time claim “sexual preference” was an offensive or outdated term.

As The Daily Wire reported Wednesday, the phrase “sexual preference” became offensive overnight after Barrett used it in one of her answers, for which she later apologized. Merriam-Webster dictionary updated its definition of the term to include the word “offensive,” even though last month the dictionary made no such distinction.

Further, many of the Democrats now attacking Barrett for the phrase have used it themselves in recent years, despite claiming it has been offensive for “decades.”

Sen. Mazie Hirono claimed on Tuesday that it was “an offensive and outdated term,” yet she used it herself in 2017. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden also used the phrase in May. Liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whose death prompted Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court, even used the phrase.

The Washington Free Beacon put together a video of various Democrats using the phrase:

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The Daily Wire   >  Read   >  LGBT Websites Now Say ‘Sexual Preference’ Is An Offensive Term. They Were Fine With It Last Month.