How ‘Gay’ Came to Mean ‘Homosexual’

Contents:

• 5 FACTS BEHD THE "GAY" EAR
• WHICH EAR IS THE GAY EAR? IT’S THE LEFT, HERE’S WHY!
• WHICH EAR IS THE GAY EARRG? WHICH EAR IS THE STRAIGHT EAR?
• THE HISTORY OF THE WORD “GAY”
• GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

5 FACTS BEHD THE "GAY" EAR

Have you ever heard the term "gay ear"? Now ’s nsired a fad that has bee passe, but at one time, people really ed as a tell-tale sign of whether a young man was gay or not. Fact 1: The “Gay Ear” Referred To a Man Havg His Right Ear Pierced.

When people talked about the gay ear, they referred to a specific ear beg pierced on a man. This trend didn't clu women the gay ear fad bee, most Wtern cultur sce the 1950s, has generally been a cultural norm for femal to have their ears pierced. But wasn't until the late 1960s that people attributed a man who had his ear pierced to beg gay.

Fact 3: Right Earlobe Meant Gay, Left Earlobe Meant Straight. The practice of ear piercg history began to thread through hippie muni first and then through the gay muny.

WHICH EAR IS THE GAY EAR? IT’S THE LEFT, HERE’S WHY!

Some straight people also enjoyed the trend and tablished that the left earlobe signified that they were not gay, even though they were a man wh a sgle pierced ear. Though some people preferred to have both ears pierced, the LGBT muny quickly cid that if a man had one ear pierced, namely the right one, on the earlobe, was a vert signal that he was gay.

WHICH EAR IS THE GAY EARRG? WHICH EAR IS THE STRAIGHT EAR?

Fact 4: The Gay Ear Was Used for Gay Signalg.

Sce beg gay isn’t jt herently somethg visible om someone’s looks, the LGBTQ+ muny of centuri past spent a good amount of time lookg for specific styl or trends to allow people wh the muny to show other people that they were gay and proud of . In some societi where beg gay was eher owned upon or illegal and punishable, LGBTQ+ members would choose subtle methods of monstratg their sexualy.

Over the centuri, among different societi, any good historian n pot to a few different methods of gay signalg. However, the subtle methods did ocsnally suffer when gay dividuals eher wanted a more prehensive monstratn of their gay pri or when straight people found out about the trend.

THE HISTORY OF THE WORD “GAY”

Disverg the secret “gay ear ” led to creased scty of men's ears by discrimatory dividuals. By the 1990s, the fn of the gay ear had bee so nfg that most people jt shgged off the ia and cid that any man who had any part of his ears pierced mt be queer. However, as punk rock culture me more promently onto the scene, enough men began havg their ears pierced that people cid to move on om the ia of a “gay ear” entirely.

Most people have pletely fotten about the gay ear fad or are too young to even remember .

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

While the ia of a gay ear, or anythg really that’s a tell of someone's sexualy seems lghable today, was once an tegral part of LGBTQ+ culture. The ia of gay signalg hasn't stopped, pecially plac and cultur where people n't be as vol about their sexualy as they might want to be.

Today I found out how ‘gay’ me to mean ‘homosexual’. 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.

Also at this time, the phrase “gay ” meant to have sex. 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. There was also another word “gey t” at this time which meant a homosexual boy.