There’s no one right answer to this qutn, but we n help you expla to children what “gay” means while focg on love and fay.
Contents:
LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENR, AND QUEER (LGBTQ) TEENS
* mean for girl gay *
Sexual orientatn refers to the endurg physil, romantic and/or emotnal attractn to members of the same and/or other genrs, cludg lbian, gay, bisexual and straight orientatns. As GLAAD not, "Transgenr people may be straight, lbian, gay, bisexual or queer. A person who transns om female to male and is attracted solely to men would typilly intify as a gay man.
The e of she/her pronouns by cisgenr gay men, along wh words such as "girl" or "honey," is a long-standg and creasgly visible practice. For many gay men, g the words wh their iends is a way of embracg femy and showg vulnerabily or affectn to others who share their inti. Creatg a shared culture — cludg language — around femy n be a way of reclaimg the bas for opprsn many gay men have experienced, as well as disptg the harmful genr bary.But few if any lguistic practic are all one thg, all the time.
It may be time to reevaluate cis gay men’s e of words like "she" and "girl" to make sure they align wh ongog efforts to rpect nonbary genr inti, and avoid makg assumptns about people’s pronouns. Lguists, social scientists, and crics have observed and studied cis gay men’s e of “she,” and their asssments pot to the multiple and often nflictg dimensns of the practice.“Somethg n both be subversive but also problematic at the same time,” explas Lal Zimman, a lguistics profsor at UC Santa Barbara who specializ trans language practic. So for even to make sense for gay men to e ‘she,’ we have to have some kd of associatn wh ‘she,’ and ually that associatn is femy, whatever that might mean to or our culture.”Historilly, queer men and women swched their e of genr pronouns so that they uld openly munite wh one another tim when was not safe to openly have same-sex relatnships.
WHAT DO "GAY" MEAN?
“Men g women’s pronouns, and women g men’s pronouns, has got an enormo time pth Amerin lbian-gay English. It’s not a recent formatn at all,” explas William Leap, an emer profsor of anthropology at Amerin Universy and pneerg expert on queer lguistics.Gay men llg each other "she" or "girl" was historilly a way of protectg themselv as well as buildg muny the ntext of homophobic and vlent mastream culture.
In the 1940s, ary censors were on the lookout for evince of homosexualy, which uld provoke a ary vtigatn. Now, do today’s young people know that when they say thgs like, ‘Is she for real?’ I don’t know.”Usg words like "she" and "girl" n be a way for cis gay men to bond and embrace femy. The ntext which I’ve experienced this for the most part has been one of a willgns to move beyond the rigidy of markers of a certa type of manhood and masculy.”Yet some women have experienced gay men g words like “girl” toward them ways that don’t feel all that different om the misogyny they have experienced om straight men.