In case you haven’t heard anything about this story, a 24-year-old, female American rapper by the name of Azealia Banks, has said that the LGBTQIA+ community “are like the gay white KKK.” This quote comes from a Twitter rant in defense of an earlier incident. So let’s back up a bit.

A few days ago, Banks was on a flight where she and a flight attendant had an argument. In the video (which you can watch here) she is seen screaming at the flight attendant to release her luggage, which for whatever reason he doesn’t, and unfortunately it resulted in her calling him a “f*cking faggot.” Well as you can imagine gay Twitter was having none of that and the backlash came swiftly and even as an Azealia Banks fan, I do say it was rightfully deserved.

So back to her defensive (and offensive) tweet; she was again being targeted by the queer community on Twitter and her response, which I thought was interesting, was “You guys can handle TEN HARD INCHES OF COCK, call a woman a cunt, yet can’t take the word f****t LOLOL”

Where things get really interesting is when Banks had a spat with British actress Alison Newman. She tried to justify her usage of anti-gay slurs by saying that gay men can talk to women any kind of way they wish but still want respect.

@alisonnewman are their feelings more important than ours? Why do they deserve respect that they don’t give us? — AZEALIABANKS (@AZEALIABANKS) September 27, 2015

Now, as bloggers/podcasters Kid Fury and Crissle over at The Read would say: words mean things. Yes, Banks used an offensive word to our community but how many times have you heard or perhaps even called a woman a b***h or c**t? I’ve heard it plenty by trans people, gay men, lesbians, drag queens, and more. So then the question becomes are we going to be hypocritical enough to think we can call a woman a c**t but if she calls us the F-word we’ve got to take her down? Banks has been vocal about the issues facing our community (she identifies as bisexual herself) and the importance of being who you are.

If you want to think a little deeper about it, this whole fiasco with Azealia Banks could go a little further than just her usage of words. One has to wonder if f****t will be another N-word situation? Wherein the group the word is intended to demean are the only ones allowed to use it. Will f****t be reclaimed by the community, like “queer”? Can it?

Well, I think Ms. Banks was right. It all boils down to respect. If you don’t respect someone enough to not call them a derogatory term, then how can you possibly expect them to do the same for you? She may have said something out of anger that she shouldn’t have but her justification of why she uses that word is, in my opinion, reasonable and clear.