Q Toon: N-word vs. Q-word

I come rather late to the Paula Deen party -- her use of "the N word" was not, initially, an LGBT issue, after all. Then certain right-wingers decided to make it one by whining that if Deen had to lose her career just for being racist, then New York liberal actor Alec Baldwin ought to be hounded out of his career for having tweeted that a gossip columnist who had criticized Baldwin's wife is "a toxic little queen."

Allow me to stipulate first of all that Baldwin's having resorted to gay-baiting name-calling is certainly reprehensible -- although, given his history, hardly surprising. (I'll also predict that since in his post-romantic-lead career, he has gotten type cast as an over-privileged, self-absorbed jerk, the current flap will not put a dent in his wallet.) I will further stipulate that Baldwin's tweets do not herald a return of the Algonquin Round Table.

But is the Q word as indefensible as the N word? The very fact that nobody has to refer to it as "the Q word" in the press suggests that it isn't. It's probably not as bad as "the F word," if you care to compare it to something more synonymous.

I don't know Daily Mail gossip-monger George Stark, but I'm guessing that I haven't inadvertently drawn him among the staff at Capital One Headquarters.