How ‘Gay’ Came to Mean ‘Homosexual’

Contents:

• THE ORIGS OF THE WORD ‘GAY’
• GAY (ADJ.)
• THE HISTORY OF THE WORD “GAY”
• GAY HISTORY: HOW ‘GAY’ CAME TO MEAN ‘HOMOSEXUAL’
• WHAT WAS A GAY PERSON LLED 17TH CENTURY?
• HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI
• MOLLY, GAY, TRANSSEXUAL, TRANSGENR: LGBT WORDS TRANSN, TOO

THE ORIGS OF THE WORD ‘GAY’

It’s Pri Month and one of the most lourful words the English language – wh more makeovers than Madonna and more dramatic life stori than Liza Mnelli – is the word ‘gay’! Like every hero, ‘gay’ has an orig story, but even today, scholars are disagreement over the precise journey took to reach the level of fame (or famy) mands nowadays. Sometime between the 11th and late 15th centuri, ‘gai’ crossed the English Channel and end up as ‘gay’, but kept s French meangs – ‘cheerful’, ‘happy’, ‘merry’, and ‘lively’.

GAY (ADJ.)

By the 1970s, the term ‘gay man’ had bee firmly entrenched s current meang, referrg only to ‘homosexual men’, which was a far cry om jt a hundred years earlier, when meant ‘womaniser’ or ‘sexually unhibed man’.

’ This age is found most often among younger mal North Ameri/the UK and rearch shows that young men wh iends the LGBTQ+ muny e the word ‘gay’ a much ls pejorative way than those whout. 240]The associatn wh (male) homosexualy likely got a boost om the term gay t, ed as far back as 1893 Amerin English for "young hobo, " one who is new on the road, also one who sometim do jobs.

THE HISTORY OF THE WORD “GAY”

Gay ts were severely and celly abed by "real" tramps and bums, who nsired them "an ferr orr of begs who begs of and otherwise preys upon the bum — as were a jackal followg up the kg of beasts" [Prof. McCook, "Tramps, " "The Public Treatment of Pperism, " 1893], but some acunts report certa olr tramps would domate a gay t and employ him as a sort of slave.

GAY HISTORY: HOW ‘GAY’ CAME TO MEAN ‘HOMOSEXUAL’

In "Soclogy and Social Rearch" (1932-33) a paragraph on the "gay t" phenomenon not, "Homosexual practic are more mon than rare this group, " and gey t "homosexual boy" is attted Noel Erske's 1933 dictnary of "Unrworld & Prison Slang" (gey is a Sttish variant of gay) "Dictnary of Amerin Slang" reports that gay (adj. In the 1890s, the term “gey t” (a Sttish variant of gay) was ed to scribe a vagrant who offered sexual servic to women or a young traveler who was new to the road and the pany of an olr man. In 1951, gay appeared the Oxford English Dictnary for the first time as slang for homosexual, but was most likely ed this way “unrground” at least 30 years earlier.

WHAT WAS A GAY PERSON LLED 17TH CENTURY?

” This le (ad-libbed by Grant) n be terpreted to mean that he was behavg a happy-go-lucky or lighthearted way but is accepted by many as the first e of gay to mean homosexual a mastream movie. When gay is ed today to mean stupid or unsirable ( has only been ed this way sce the 1990s), rri wh a history of negative judgment and rigid ias about who or what is acceptable.

The word “gay” seems to have s origs around the 12th century England, rived om the Old French word ‘gai’, which turn was probably rived om a Germanic word, though that isn’t pletely known. Fast-forward to the 19th century and the word gay referred to a woman who was a prostute and a gay man was someone who slept wh a lot of women (ironilly enough), often prostut.

In terms of the sexual meang of the word, a “gay man” no longer jt meant a man who had sex wh a lot of women, but now started to refer to men who had sex wh other men. Gay men themselv seem to have been behd the drivg thst for this new fn as they felt (and many still do), that “homosexual” is much too clil, soundg like a disorr. As such, was mon amongst the gay muny to refer to one another as “gay” s before this was a monly known fn (reportedly homosexual men were llg one another gay as early as the 1920s).

HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI

Sce then, gay, meang homosexual male, has steadily driven out all the other fns that have floated about through time and of urse also has gradually begun supplementg the word ‘lbian’ as referrg to women who are homosexual.

Bee even mentng someone was a homosexual was so offensive at the time England, people who were thought to be gay were referred to as “sporty” wh girls and “artistic” for boys. Another example of this lk between homosexualy and Catholicism English satire is the play Sodom, or the Qutsence of Debchery, one of the few remag mancript pi of which surviv the Harley llectn. The name chosen by this important early activist group is the ma reason gay beme the polilly rrect term stead of any of the many more mon terms e before then.

the crime of buggery (so they may have been lled buggers) User ∙ 9y agoThis answer is:Study guisAdd your answer:Earn +20 ptsQ: What was a gay person lled 17th century? Or even LGBTQIA+ History terms for the muny of people that enpass people who are lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, queer, tersex, and asexual are as broad as that muny self: As society’s unrstandg, regnn, and cln of diverse sexual inti and genr exprsns has grown, so has s acronym. Over time, grew populary and was adopted by women who secretly, then proudly, loved other dawn of “homosexualy” and “bisexualy”Karl Herich Ulrichs, a 19th century German lawyer and wrer who may have intified as gay, was the first to try to label his own muny.

MOLLY, GAY, TRANSSEXUAL, TRANSGENR: LGBT WORDS TRANSN, TOO

In 1869, the Pssian ernment ntemplated addg language that forba male same-genr sexual activy to s rponse, Kertbeny wrote a passnate, anonymo open letter to the Pssian mister of jtice llg the proposed law “shockg nonsense” and g the word “homosexualy, ” which he had prevly ed a private letter to Ulrichs.

Early gay rights groups and practners of the growg field of psychology eventually adopted the Reclaimg a slurIn the late 1960s, activists reclaimed a s-old slur, “gay.