Arnold Zwicky of Language Log highlights the idea of using the term “gaycism,” “as a parallel to racism and a competitor to homophobia.”

I like its brevity, and its implication of active bias, not just fear (as in “homophobia“). I wonder, though, if it risks marginalizing lesbians. Or are we all comfortable with “gay” as an acceptable shorthand for both?

(No, “sexualorientationism” won’t work.)

Will “gaycism” catch on as a term to describe the phenomenon currently known as homophobia? Should it?