Any word can be misused. The word liberal has taken on a pejorative sense, for bleep sake.
'Bleep' - now there's a word with an interesting etymology I bet.
Liberal - depends on the context. It used to mean simply generous in temperament and behaviour. It can also mean people of certain political leanings, certain schools of theology, or someone loose and lavish with their possessions. In Australia, with a capital 'L' it is a political party, which, confusingly is not politically 'liberal' in the sense that Americans use the word, viz to describe the social liberalism of the Democrats, but is the Australian equivalent of the Republican party (well the nearest we've got to it). Of course if you are of the opposite political or theological persuasion in any of those contexts then, yes, it becomes a pejorative term in certain circles. But it doesn't have an inherently negative etymology like 'homophobic' does.
