I guess the line is the same one for porn, 'I can't tell you what porn is, but I know porn when I see it.'

The word 'punk' was a word that wasn't offensive to me growing up, neither was 'sissy', but f_g and d_ke never sat well with me.

Granted most of the hip-hop I listened to when I was younger was tame . My parents had a rule against my brother and I listening to explicit music in the house.

But the first time, I had an intense reaction to homophobic lyrics was listening to Like Water for Chocolate. I was in my early 20's, out of college and living in San Francisco, so my awareness of the impact those words had was more developed at that age.

But I still listened to the album on a regular basis even though I objected to the lyrics, so my discomfort couldn't have been too powerful.

My awareness is heightened, but I still listen to music that I think is dope which unfortunately uses hateful lyrics. There's always been that experience in hip-hop where you know the lyrical content is self-destructive but the song is so well made that it's almost impossible to do anything but nod your head.

Weeding out music that doesn't use homophobic imagery would be symbolic but it could lead to making a decided interest to learn more about LGBT issues.