[Spivak]

> Did people become less homophobic because "gay" stopped being used as an insult.

I can only speak from my own personal experience but yes! Absolutely 1000% yes. That is exactly the point and the intended goal of reclaiming the term.

[playpause]

Did you stop reading at that bit?

[Spivak]

No, and my response refers to the whole post.

The parent chose the usage of gay as an example of one direction of the push and pull of "language influences norms" and "norms influence language" but that dynamic only really applies when language develops naturally. When people start purposely influencing language then that goes out the window. Reclaiming the gay, f*g, queer, etc. was and is an active effort by the LGBT community and allies to directly influence norms through language.