UPDATE, 12pm:

Cub Sport’s Tim Nelson has responded to the barrage of hate and abuse the band received after calling out the derogatory use of the words ‘gay’ and ‘retarded’ on Facebook.

The response was sent to Tone Deaf a few minutes ago and can be read in full below:

I wrote yesterday’s post to bring attention to the common and damaging use of slurs. A lot of decent people say these words without realising how much it can hurt others. I was guilty of it for years and I was so appreciative when it was pointed out to me that it isn’t okay – I wanted to do the same for others. There has been an overwhelming amount of support and love being shared which is so encouraging to see.

There have also been some really awful comments that have been hard to read (at times coming from grown adults and directed at young teens). We’re choosing not to let these redundant comments affect us, but rather to serve as a reminder of how important it is to speak up and support the people whose voices aren’t being heard. It’s more important now than ever.

The standard you walk past quietly is the standard you accept. To anybody who has been hurt by commenters on our post – sorry you’ve encountered this on our page. Remember that there are countless people who love you for who you are and you deserve nothing less than absolute respect.

There’s a long way to go, but we will not stop.

—–

“If you let a couple of words affect you that much you’re retarded and gay.”

“All I see here is a bunch of gay retards.”

“shut up retard.”

These comments, among many, many others, were posted to a status update by Brisbane indie-pop band Cub Sport overnight.

At time of publishing, Cub Sport’s status update received 320 shares, 2,500 reactions and over 240 comments. What’s most shocking though, is that the majority of those commenting are not only negative, but abusive toward the band, whose members Sam Netterfield and Tim Nelson are in a relationship.

There was a time when the word gay was used to mean ‘happy’ or ‘merry’. Then, as it still stands today it was used to describe a person’s sexual orientation. It blows our mind that after it was used by people the world over to identify who they are, someone decided it also meant ‘a bit shit.’

We’re not saying that the staff here at Tone Deaf are entirely exempt from using the word gay in a derogatory sense – a few of us including myself have fallen into the trap of adding it to our slang vocabulary in the past – but language has changed and the world has matured.

Why is okay to to stop using words like ‘thrice’ and ‘mullock’ (which also essentially means ‘a bit shit’ by the way), but many seem to think it’s their god-given right to use two words that genuinely offend people?

Cub Sport have said that since posting the update to Facebook, they’ve received abuse via Facebook messenger.

If you still think it’s okay not only use derogatory terms at your leisure and bully people for calling you on it, we’d like to leave you with this:

According to a report published by the National LGBTI Health Alliance, LGBTI young people aged 16 to 27 are five times more likely to attempt suicide in their lifetime. Meanwhile, LGBT young people who experience abuse and harassment are even more likely to attempt suicide.

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