As others have pointed out, we are not talking about anything approaching the equivalent of a racial slur. Race is a characteristic rightly protected by law, public consensus and proper moral sensibility. The practice of sexual perversion is NOT.
Words that properly denigrate those who practice sick and twisted sexual perversion are appropriate, in my view.
That said, such sexually-explicit terms such as "fudge-packer" or "carpet-muncher" would indeed have been inappropriate around children, because they generate an image that is itself offensive because it is an image of the offensive sexual conduct of the perverts.
But "faggot" is neutral, and there is nothing about the practice of sexual perversion that deserves the kinds of protections properly reserved for characteristics such as race or nationality.
Malkin, Fox News contributor ping request