Signs of Insensitivity?

The British Telegraph is reporting that changes are being instituted in British Sign Language to avoid offending people:

The abandoned signs include "Jewish", in which a hand mimes a hooked nose; the sign for "gay", a flick of a limp wrist; and "Chinese", in which the index fingertips pull the eyes into a slant. Another dropped sign is that for "Indian", which is a finger pointing to an imaginary spot in the middle of a forehead.

Okay, fair enough. Maybe some of those signs are a little, well, 1950s in their attitude. But no good turn goes unpunished these days; the deaf people are offended:

Critics labelled the move as silly yesterday, saying that the producers were interfering with "deaf culture".

Polly Smith, the acting chairperson of the British Council for Disabled People, said that the changes were a form of discrimination.

"The programme makers at Channel 4 are interfering with deaf people's language, culture and view of society, and that is a form of discrimination," she said.

So deaf people in Great Britain have their own culture, and all elements of it defensible as such, no matter how bigoted. Isn't that the same argument that civil war buffs, gun enthusiasts, and southerners in the US have been making (and vilified for) for years?