When
a
gay
blogger
who
writes
under
the
name
Al-Fil
Al-Jamil
typed
“gay”
into
Google’s
translation
tool
last
month
to
find
its
Arabic
equivalent,
he
was
surprised
by
the
result.
The
term
that
popped
up,
“luti,”
is
the
Arabic
equivalent
to
“sodomite.”
Upset
over
the
translation,
Al-Jamil
posted
his
findings
on
his
website,
gaymiddleeast.blogspot.com,
home
to
his
blog
since
April.
“‘Luti’
is
such
a
demeaning
term,
much
worse
because
people
can
pretend
it’s
legitimate
because
it’s
old
and
not
used
in
the
street,”
Al-Jamil,
who
lives
in
Beirut
but
is
currently
traveling,
said
in
an
e-mail
interview.
“It’s
pretty
much
the
same
as
‘fag’
and
‘sodomite.’
‘Fag’
is
used
in
the
street
horrifyingly.
‘Sodomite’
is
not.
But
that
does
not
make
‘sodomite’
a
neutral
term.
‘Luti’
is
used
in
almost
the
exact
same
manner
as
‘sodomite.’”
Al-Jamil
said
he
alerted
Google
to
the
problem,
but
was
disappointed
when
he
received
an
automated
response.
“The
response
I
got
was
just
a
tiny
letter,
which
simply
copied
and
pasted
a
vague
reference
to
translation
for
Google’s
website,”
Al-Jamil
said.
“
I
was
mostly
just
annoyed.
I
never
really
thought
Google
did
it
on
purpose,
but
I
figured
it
didn’t
know
any
better.
I
wasn’t
seeking
a
huge
apology.
I
just
wanted
them
to
change
the
translation.”
GOOGLE
DID
NOT
respond
to
inquiries
for
this
story,
but
Al-Jamil
posted
the
company’s
response
on
his
blog
site
under
the
heading
“Google
doesn’t
care
if
it’s
homophobic.”
The
letter
reads,
“Unfortunately
even
today’s
sophisticated
software
doesn’t
approach
the
fluency
of
a
native
speaker
…
we’re
continually
working
to
improve
the
quality
of
our
automatic
translation.
In
the
interim,
we
hope
the
service
we
provide
is
useful
for
most
purposes.”
Some
gay
activists
said
Google’s
perfunctory
response
should
not
be
viewed
as
anti-gay.
“Their
first
reply
to
the
Middle
East
Gay
Journal
seemed
to
me
like
an
automatic
response,
not
a
homophobic
one,”
said
Bassam
Kassab,
a
coordinator
for
San
Francisco-based
Southwest
Asian
&
North
African
Bay
Area
Queers
Dissatisfied
with
Google’s
response,
Al-Jamil
wrote
another
letter
to
the
company
and
received
a
response
a
week
later
from
Sherif
R.
Iskander,
a
Google
manager
in
the
Middle
East.
The
letter
apologized
for
the
translation
and
the
translations
were
then
corrected,
according
to
Al-Jamil.
GOOGLE’S
TRANSLATION
TOOLS
operate
under
a
statistical
model
that
uses
other
translations
to
determine
how
words
should
continue
to
be
translated,
according
to
Iskander’s
letter.
“Unfortunately
many
sources
on
the
web
use
the
translation
you
have
seen,”
Iskander
wrote.
Al-Jamil
agreed
that
the
term
is
not
unusual
in
Arabic.
“‘Luti,’
while
pejorative,
is
also
very
common,”
Al-Jamil
said.
“It
could
have
easily
been
found.”
Kassab
confirmed
that
the
terms
for
gay
and
lesbian
have
been
changed
to
the
non-pejorative
“misli
jinsiyan”
and
“misliya,”
respectively.
Although
the
problem
has
been
corrected,
even
nuanced
mistakes
in
translating
languages
can
have
serious
implications
if
left
uncorrected,
Al-Jamil
said.
“I
think
that
the
translation
that
existed
before
could
have
subtle,
but
far-reaching
and
dangerous
consequences,”
Al-Jamil
said.
“For
example,
if
someone
wanted
to
translate
‘Gay
people
march
in
New
York
City’
and
received
the
equivalent
of
‘Sodomites
march
in
New
York
City’
in
Arabic.
…
The
translation
would
have
the
following
effects:
it
would
make
the
translator
seem
unnecessarily
biased,
it
would
reaffirm
existing
discrimination
in
the
Arabic
language,
and
anyone
who
reads
the
article
would
come
away
with
a
negative
view
of
gay
people.
At
first,
translation
might
seem
trivial,
but
it
really
isn’t.”
