Google Removes Antigay Slurs From Translation Tool

Google has fixed a bug in its Translate feature that has translated the word "gay" into slurs.

Andre Banks, the executive director of the LGBT group All Out, had launched a petition in response to the tool, which offered English words such as "faggot," "poof," and "queen" when asked to translate "gay" from foreign languages.

"People use Google translate every day to make sense of the world, learning languages, trying to communicate," Banks said, reports ABC News. "What we wanted to say is the common words aren't the same as the terrible words being used to describe us across time."

In less than 24 hours, the petition garnered over 50,000 signatures, prompting a quick response and apology from the tech giant.

"As soon as we were informed that some of our translations for certain terms were serving inappropriate results, we immediately began working to fix the issue," a Google spokesperson said.

"We apologize for any offense this has caused people," the spokesperson continued. "Our systems produce translations automatically based on existing translations on the Web, so we appreciate when users point out issues such as this."

Banks said he "always expected Google to do the right thing" and was pleasantly surprised by how quickly the matter were addressed.

"It's important Google is able to provide an accurate translation of these words that describe so many people," he said. "We were really glad to see this change happen in hours, not weeks and months."