My young colleague, who does have some choice expressions...

[Bbbananas]

... has just rung up and reported her printer as needing a service call. She said "my printer's being a bit gay......" and the operator the other end hit the roof and accused her of homophobia.

I mean, honestly.... ;-(

[joggerjayne]

As square says, "being a bit gay" is a widely accepted expression meaning ...

... lame, or pathetic.

It's quite common for words, especially adjectives, to have multiple applications.

eg. "Blue" can mean depressed ... or pornographic.

[Bbbananas]

Oh, I know the expression, I just thought the bloke's reaction on the other end of the phone was a little excessive....

[joggerjayne]

Yes, it was.

She should have asked him why he was so quick to see homophobia where it didn't exist.

Is his head so full of homophobia?

He is looking for homophobia wherever he can find it.

He feeds on homophobia.

I think he is homophobic.

[snags]

None of the above. He's gay...

[boxtops]

It's taken me long enough to get to grips with "cool"....

[jd_1984]

I remember saying to somebody in work "you catch like a puff!" and was told by my then manager that the comment was inappropriate!

[boxtops]

I said N1gger the other day, quite inadvertently and as in "in the woodpile" - that didn't go down well.

[lardhelmet]

We've got a gay man in our department now (although he pretends he isn't which I think is worse). He has an HR background and comes over all tight lipped & unnecessary (even if I'm not talking to him) when I refer to them as Human Remains. Pr@t!

[jd_1984]

Somehow you lot will find a route back to sausages!

[McMouse]

<<tight lipped & unnecessary>> Hmmm

[boxtops]

No, not racist, pinki, just not afraid to acknowledge the difference.... ;-)

[Mosaic]

Reminds me of a colleague once describing an meal with friends in a restaurant being tarnished by the waiter trying to 'jew them' on the bill.
You can't control what people want to say, but you can raise awareness of the effect casual prejudice has - both insulting the targets, and coarsening the undestanding of the perpetrator.
The same route sees other words (eg virgin; spastic) accepted as insults.