I was watching a Swedish movie on Netflix about a gay couple who move into a picturesque neighborhood of white picket fences and nuclear families in preparation to adopt a child of their own. Adults in the neighborhood appear apprehensive and unwelcoming, while their children are outright belligerent, showing up at the couple’s doorstep to shout out insults. The most commonly used pejorative, bög (which was translated as “homo” by the subtitles), seemed almost cute to my boyfriend, who isn’t a Swedish speaker and had trouble even simply pronouncing its vowel sound.

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