Teen Asks Apple To Remove Offensive Definition Of the Word ‘Gay’ From Dictionary App
Apple store image via pio3 / Shutterstock.com
A Massachusetts teen is trying to get Apple to change the definition of the word “gay” that appears in the dictionary app, calling it derogatory and offensive.
With Apple being widely known as a pro-LGBT company, Sudbury High School sophomore Becca Gorman was “stunned” to find language in the definition—including a reference to being “foolish” and “stupid”—when she went to look it up on her MacBook Pro laptop.
The “informal” definition included an example of the word used in a sentence that said, “Making students wait for the light is kind of a gay rule.”
After discovering it, while doing a research paper for school about the “lack of rights for gays and lesbians,” Gorman quickly took a screenshot of the app’s third explanation for the word:
Apple products come with what the company calls “a versatile dictionary application” to allow people to search a word’s origin. It pulls definitions from the New Oxford American Dictionary, which on its own website includes the same explanation.
Boston reached out to Apple, but did not immediately receive a reply.
Gorman, whose mothers are lesbians, decided to take her disapproval of the terminology one step further and wrote a strongly worded letter to the computer company, addressing it directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook.
“I assume that you are a pro-gay company, and would never intend for anyone of your products to be as offensive as this definition was. Even with your addition of the word informal, this definition normalizes the terrible derogatory twist that many people put on the word ‘gay’,” she wrote. “The use of ‘gay’ as a negative adjective is not okay and needs to stop; insulting or making people feel uncomfortable everyday. All other derogatory terms within the dictionary have it listed as an offensive term or unacceptable.”
After a search of other terms deemed offensive in nature, Gorman said she found most of them were marked with the word “derogatory” to signify that the language was unacceptable.
In her letter, Gorman asked that the company make a formal apology to the gay community as a whole, as well as a “significant change” to the context of the word in the app. According to the MetroWest Daily News, after Gorman—with the support of her mothers—sent the letter to Cook, the company was quick to call her back. The company admitted they, too, were surprised the definition was there.
However, as of Tuesday, no changes had been made to the Dictionary’s language. Other dictionaries, such as dictionary.com, also have derogative definitions associated with the term, however, they are prefaced as “slang” that is considered “disparaging and offensive.”
While Gorman was understandably upset about the wording, she noted in her letter several times that she “loves” Apple products, and went as far as thanking the company for helping continue her education.
