The Arabic homosexual community was outraged to discover that Google Translation Tools delivers a pejorative linguistic equivalent as the translation of the word gay. While in English, gay is somewhat a neutral term, widely accepted by the homosexual community, the word "luti" returned by the translation tools as the Arabic term belongs in fact to the derogatory terminology associated with such sexual preferences in the Arab world.

Arabic gay activist have stated that "luti" means in fact "sodomite" and that the term is inappropriately used by Google and the association is unwanted at best. Originating in the Old Testament, from the Lot prophet in Sodom and Gomorrah tale, the "luti" term was brought to the attention of Google representatives by the administrator of the The Middle East Gay Journal. Sherif Iskander, Google's business manager for the Middle East and North Africa has stated that the company is hard at work to solve the problem and also to reconsider other sensitive aspects of translation in order to avoid similar future issues. "The machine is learning," Iskander said. "Several examples like this have come to my attention. Issues like that should not stay in the system."