French tribunal rules "faggot" isn't homophobic

An employee of a hair salon described as a "faggot" by his boss claimed unfair dismissal, but a Paris tribunal found that the word wasn't a homophobic slur when used at a hair salon, where people are often gay.

The text from the salon boss read: "I am not going to keep [the employee]... I don't have a good feeling about this guy. He's a faggot," according to Liberation.

They used the French term "PD" which translates as the term "faggot".

In the reasoning, the tribunal said: "If we put it in the context of the field of hairdressing, the council considers that the term 'faggot' used by a manager cannot be considered as a homophobic insult, because hair salons regularly employ gay people, notably in female hairdressers, and that poses no problem at all."

The ruling has been noted not just for its trivialization of homophobia (Labour Minister Myriam El Khomri described the ruling as "outrageous" and "shocking"), but also for being not quite lucid.