So today I'm talking with my niece. She's upset because she's had a fight with her neighborhood friend. Seems he called her a "faggot." She asks me what that means. Well, dear, that would be your uncle.

No, I didn't say that. I told her, "That's a bad word for a gay person." And she then lists all of the other bad words her friend has used-- the f-word, the b-word, the a-word. I agree with her that those are bad words and that "we don't say bad words like that. They're mean to people and not nice."

I must say hearing my niece use the word "faggot" threw me for a loop. Did I mention that she's 7? She is growing up in this obscene society, for sure. How delightful...