In reply to Tom Valentine:
> I had come round to believing that "queer" was an acceptable term since I see it used so much in the media. Even Jim Perrin uses it.
It's less the word than the perjorative manner in which it was used.
The quote was apparently:
"“Queers like Ms Bardell don’t particularly annoy me,” the former army officer told the Huffington Post, as well as describing the security guard as “crooked”, “a little git” and a “jobsworth”."
The sexuality of the person he was talking about is of no relevance, therefore referring to it in such a sentence is the problem. If he said "People like..." then that, while insulting, would not be homophobic.
Post edited at 14:53