You're right. I never said it was an unbiased perspective, so let me make it clear. The post was intended to help those who were like me. When I wrote the post, I wrote it as if I was speaking to my past self in a style that would have motivated my younger self; nothing more, nothing less.

Are these words really that verboten now?

No, but a person's choice of even our non-verboten words will still cause others to make certain assumptions about them.

These are the excuses culture makes available. I take the commenter just to be reporting them.