Why "Gay" Isn't a Bad Word for Children | HuffPost Contributor

Contents:

• WHY "GAY" ISN'T A BAD WORD FOR CHILDREN
• WHAT’S WRONG WH BEG “GAY”? HERE’S WHAT THEY DON’T TELL YOU -- AND ’S REALLY DISTURBG.
• PORTLAND DISSENTSUBSCRIBESIGN {"@NTEXT":","@TYPE":"NEWSARTICLE","URL":","MAENTYOFPAGE":","HEADLE":"IS 'GAY' A BAD WORD?","SCRIPTN":"AND JT WHAT IS 'QUEER?'","IMAGE":[],"DATEPUBLISHED":"2022-07-31T18:55:28+00:00","DATEMODIFIED":"2022-07-31T18:55:28+00:00","ISACCSIBLEFORFREE":TE,"THOR":[{"@TYPE":"PERSON","NAME":"RICHARD CHEVERTON","URL":","SCRIPTN":"THIS TOWN NEEDS MORE VOIC, LS SGG THE CHOIR. MORE ARGUMENT, LS NFORMY. WE'LL BE GMPY, DISRPECTFUL OF THORY, QUTN THE BELIEFS DU WE WON'T BE BANNED. ","INTIFIER":"ER:852343","IMAGE":{"@TYPE":"IMAGEOBJECT","NTENTURL":","THUMBNAILURL":"}}],"PUBLISHER":{"@TYPE":"ORGANIZATN","NAME":"PORTLAND DISSENT","URL":","SCRIPTN":"LET'S SAVE A GREAT AMERIN CY. ","TERACTNSTATISTIC":{"@TYPE":"INTERACTNCOUNTER","NAME":"SUBSCRIBERS","TERACTNTYPE":","ERINTERACTNCOUNT":100},"INTIFIER":"PUB:491612","LOGO":{"@TYPE":"IMAGEOBJECT","URL":","NTENTURL":","THUMBNAILURL":"},"IMAGE":{"@TYPE":"IMAGEOBJECT","URL":","NTENTURL":","THUMBNAILURL":"}}}SHARE THIS POSTIS 'GAY' A BAD WORD?COPY LKFACEBOOKEMAILNOTOTHERIS 'GAY' A BAD WORD?
• SAYG 'THAT'S GAY' PEJORATIVELY HURTS THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNY, STOP SAYG IT
• IS IT OK TO SAY "THAT'S SO GAY"?

WHY "GAY" ISN'T A BAD WORD FOR CHILDREN

There is a nversatn that needs to be started about the word “gay, ” and why you don’t need to ver the kiddi’ ears once you start a child, I grew up thkg that “gay” was a bad word.

When I was six, I was nvced that my Male book was sudnly appropriate bee ntaed the word “gay” you, I had no ia what the word gay meant. So image my surprise when I showed my book to my father and he reassured me that “gay” actually means “happy” is a funny story, nsirg that today I intify myself as a lbian. I, like so many others, grew up beg ndned to thk that homosexualy — or any sexualy bis straight — was a Horrible Sndalo Thg.

Most importantly, no one sat children down to expla what “gay” or “homosexualy” is.

WHAT’S WRONG WH BEG “GAY”? HERE’S WHAT THEY DON’T TELL YOU -- AND ’S REALLY DISTURBG.

Consequently, kids nclud om their environment that homosexualy was perverse, and that the word self n be ed as an you or people you know have the impulse to sudnly lower your voic around kids when you start discsg homosexualy? If children heard the discsns, or were exposed to any fashn, they would bee “affected, ” as if homosexualy were a disease you ught by simply hearg about or seeg (which is obvly not the se nsirg LGBT folk still exist this heternormative world) thg is, you don’t have to make the nversatn sexual to start a discsn wh your child about acceptance and love. And yet growg up, there was virtually no gay reprentatn for children of my generatn to view and intify wh.

Ruby (left) and Sapphire (right) om the h rtoon Steven Universe by Rebec Sugar more recently, Beth David and Esteban Bravo (who both intify as homosexual) om the Rglg College of Art + Dign have created the animated short “In a Heartbeat, ” which has bee a great h among dienc.

Society lov to hypersexualize any display of homosexualy, claimg that LGBT people are bbg their fac. It has bee accepted wisdom most pole circl – as well as schools, ernment, rporate Ameri, and certaly the popular culture – that homosexual behavr is a normal and natural variatn of life. An creasg amount of state and feral money is beg spent on “gay” diseas, health issu, and programs to unter “gay” domtic vlence.

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The tth is that homosexual behavr is profoundly unhealthy, dangero, and unnatural. And as legns of ex-gays attt, homosexualy is not an born actual data – readily available and even observable – n be md-bogglg. She wr, “In the 1970s, physicians were treatg the large number of ndns affectg the lower ttal tract of MSM unr the classifitn ‘gay bowel syndrome.

SAYG 'THAT'S GAY' PEJORATIVELY HURTS THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNY, STOP SAYG IT

In San Francis, cince of the “Gay Bowel Syndrome, ” as was lled medil journals, had creased by 8, 000 percent after 1973. As Gabriel Rotello—thor of Sexual Elogy: AIDS and the Dty of Gay Men and founr of OutWeek Magaze—wrote, “sexual brotherhood of promiscuy … any abandonment of that promiscuy would amount to a munal betrayal of gargantuan proportns.

Rotello also said, “A stranger to gay culture, unaware of the realy of AIDS, might believe om much of the gay prs that HIV fectn was a sort of elixir that produced high self-teem, solved long-standg psychologil and substance abe problems, and enhanced physil appearance … creatg the subnsc imprsn that fectn—the ‘penalty’ of unsafe sex—is really not so bad after all. O’Leary wr, “Gay bars, gay bookstor, theaters, certa rort muni, and circu parti have tradnally provid venu where MSM uld engage var forms of sexual activy wh numero partners.

IS IT OK TO SAY "THAT'S SO GAY"?

The awful fact is there are no sunny “gay” uplands. *MSM (men who have sex wh men) is the term ed the medil muny when discsg those who otherwise are lled gay or homosexual.

Opponents clu gay men like me as well as lbians who are veterans or thoughtful heirs of the 20th century battle for dividual civil have had wh the offsprg of the irratnal popularized postmornism of the 21st century who have latched onto our attails and won't let go.

I wish I were naive enough to object to the term bee of s legacy as an sult agast gay people.