The history of the word “gay” | The Gayly

Contents:

• THE HISTORY OF THE WORD “GAY”
• GAY
• QUEER VS. GAY: HOW THE WORDS ARE DIFFERENT, AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
• ABOUT THE CENTERSCE 1983 THE CENTER HAS BEEN SUPPORTG, FOSTERG AND CELEBRATG THE LGBT MUNY OF NEW YORK CY. FD MORE RMATN ON AND OUR WORK ABOUT THE CENTER. VIS ABOUT THE CENTEROUR MISSNCYBER CENTERCENTER HISTORYRACE EQUYMEDIA CENTERLEARSHIP & STAFFEMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNICORPORATE PARTNERSHIPSANNUAL REPORTS & FANCIAL INFORMATNCONTACT USHOURS & LOTNSEMAPSUPPORT THE CENTER
• MEANG OF GAY ENGLISH
• SYNONYMS OF GAY
• GAY (ADJ.)
• GAY (HOMOSEXUAL) AND GAY (HAPPY)

THE HISTORY OF THE WORD “GAY”

Pri, formerly known as Gay Pri, is a regnn of LGBTQ inty, affirmatn of equal rights, and celebratn of visibily, digny, and diversy the LGBTQ muny. While the word homosexual is still ocsnally ed some ntexts, you might have noticed that don’t make an appearance any versn of the LGBTQ acronym. As our age note on the term stat, “up until 1973, homosexualy was listed The Diagnostic and Statistil Manual of Mental Disorrs (DSM), psychiatry’s standard reference on the classifitn of mental illns.

GAY

And many feel that this word plac undue emphasis on sexual activy, or that sounds overly clil.” In fact, the term homosexual was liberately rejected by early gay rights activists bee, acrdg to The New York Tim, “they did not want to be intified as exclively sexual begs.”.

Gay, on the other hand, n be ed to scribe a person of any genr who experienc same-sex attractn, although is most often ed to scribe a man who is attracted to men.

On June 28, 1969, the New York Cy police raid the Stonewall Inn, a bar equented by gay and genr-nonnformg people (at a time when terms like LGBTQ didn’t yet exist).

QUEER VS. GAY: HOW THE WORDS ARE DIFFERENT, AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT

Partially rponse to Stonewall, 1970, queer activists New York Cy anized a march to Central Park wh the theme “Gay Pri.” A more prehensive history of the Stonewall Rt or the Stonewall Uprisg n be found our Pri Month explaer.

Queer lerally means “strange or odd om a nventnal viewpot,” and by at least by the late 1800s, queer was ployed as a rogatory term for an effemate or gay man. GLAAD prefers that we don’t e the term homosexual bee ’s “aggrsively ed by anti-gay extremists to suggt that gay people are somehow diseased or psychologilly/emotnally disorred.

ABOUT THE CENTERSCE 1983 THE CENTER HAS BEEN SUPPORTG, FOSTERG AND CELEBRATG THE LGBT MUNY OF NEW YORK CY. FD MORE RMATN ON AND OUR WORK ABOUT THE CENTER. VIS ABOUT THE CENTEROUR MISSNCYBER CENTERCENTER HISTORYRACE EQUYMEDIA CENTERLEARSHIP & STAFFEMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNICORPORATE PARTNERSHIPSANNUAL REPORTS & FANCIAL INFORMATNCONTACT USHOURS & LOTNSEMAPSUPPORT THE CENTER

It’s OK to scribe someone you know who publicly self-intifi as gay, lbian, bisexual, or another sexual orientatn as out. But, people who are gay, lbian, bisexual, or transgenr also re about a wi variety of other polil, social, and cultural issu.

Although Lbian, Gay, Bi, Trans, and Queer (LGBTQ+) people have been around for lennia, the evolutn of language means that those wh the muny ntue to fd more clive and accurate terms to bt scribe themselv, as Stonewall’s ever-evolvg glossary of terms prov. Aromantic people are also the ace tegory and, siarly to asexual people, may intify as gay, lbian, heterosexual, or queer to fe the directn of their attractn to others.

Siar to trans (below), the word “cis” om the Lat meang “on the same si as.”Gay: The word “gay” is generally ed to scribe someone who is sexually or romantilly attracted to people of the same genr. Homosexual: This antiquated term was ed historilly to refer to people who were attracted to people of the same genr, but ’s rarely ed today. After all, the fn of “trans” Lat is “through, across, and beyond.” Beg trans or transgenr is unnnected to sexual orientatn, so a trans person may intify as gay, straight, lbian, or whatever is right for them the same way a cisgenr person would.

MEANG OF GAY ENGLISH

Laverne Cox and Calyn Jenner are both trans women.Transsexual: Like “homosexual,” “transsexual” is largely an outdated, historil term ed to refer to someone whose genr is different om what they were assigned at birth.

Aromantic Homosexual — A person who has sexual attractn to the same genr, but they do not experience romantic attractn. Gay is also an inty term ed to scribe a male-intified person who is attracted to other male-intified people a romantic, sexual, and/or emotnal sense.

SYNONYMS OF GAY

Homophobia — Homophobia means to have an irratnal fear or tolerance of people who are homosexual or havg feelgs of homosexualy. LGBTQ+ — LBGT is an abbreviatn for lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (often ed to enpass sexual preference and genr inti that do not rrpond to heterosexual norms). LGBTIQAPD – Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr, Queer and/or Qutng, Intersex, Asexual and/or Ally, Pansexual, and Demi-sexual.

For centuri, gay was ed monly speech and lerature to mean happy, reee, bright and showy, and did not take on any sexual meang until the 1600s. At that time the meang of gay as reee evolved to imply that a person was unrtraed by morals and prone to nce and promiscuy.

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.

GAY (HOMOSEXUAL) AND GAY (HAPPY)

This latter e suggts that the younger man was a sexually submissive role and may be among the first tim that gay was ed implyg a homosexual relatnship. 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.

” 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.

Robson was an openly gay sger-songwrer who performed unr the name Jonty Dream, his iend Tenille Clarke wrote for Brish Vogue. In terviews at the time, Ileana ced both Rodrigo and his sister — along wh shiftg views her district — as fluenc on her evolutn on gay rights.

In May, the Temecula Valley Unified School District’s board voted 3 to 2 to reject a new curriculum that clud discsns on the gay rights movement and mentned Harvey Milk, the first out gay man elected to public office California. That same year, Pieters beme a natnal spokperson for AIDS awarens and gay polil activism after his historic terview wh televangelist Tammy Faye on her broadst, which fied the work's homophobic tennci. Avoid intifyg gay people as “homosexuals” an outdated term nsired rogatory and offensive to many lbian and gay Exprsn - Refers to how an dividual exprs their socially nstcted genr.

Homosexual - (see Offensive Terms to Avoid) Outdated clil term nsired rogatory and offensive by many gay and lbian people.

LGBTQQIA - An acronym ed to refer to all sexual mori: “Lbian, Gay/Genr Ntral/Genr Queer, Bisexual/Bigenr, Transgenr/Transvte/Transsexual, Qutng/Queer, Intersex, and Alli/Androgyno/Asexual.