The history of the word “gay” | The Gayly

Contents:

• GAY HEAD JOURNAL; A TOWN WH HISTORY, BUT WHOSE?
• GAY HEAD LIGHTHOE MOVE IS PLETE
• GAY HEAD OR AQUNAH? CHANGE TO A VOTE
• TRIBE WANTS NAME CHANGE FOR GAY HEAD
• HERE'S WHY HUFFPOST GAY VOIC JT CHANGED ITS NAME TO HUFFPOST QUEER VOIC
• GAY HEAD VOTED OUT AS MASS. TOWN'S NAME
• THE HISTORY OF THE WORD “GAY”
• GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• GAY RIGHTS
• THE FOTTEN SECRET LANGUAGE OF GAY MEN
• SCIENTISTS MAY HAVE FALLY UNLOCKED PUZZLE OF WHY PEOPLE ARE GAY

GAY HEAD JOURNAL; A TOWN WH HISTORY, BUT WHOSE?

A group of Indians and wh here would like that to May 15, the 191 registered voters this town on the wtern edge of Martha's Veyard will be asked whether Gay Head should change s name to Aqunah, the origal Wampanoag name for the wtern Veyard the measure succeeds, Gay Head would bee only the third Massachetts municipaly this century to rename self. Cottage Cy, also on the Veyard, changed to Oak Bluffs 1907 and Manchter, on the state's north shore, beme Manchter-by-the-Sea last procs began here last month, when Carl Widdiss, a 41-year-old Wampanoag (pronounced wam-pa-NO-og), circulated a petn that asked rints if they wanted to vote on whether Gay Head should bee Aqunah (pronounced ah-KWIN-ah), which he said means "land unr the hill.

GAY HEAD LIGHTHOE MOVE IS PLETE

" The hill, acrdg to tribal lore, is Peaked Hill, a knoll the neighborg town of Chilmark om which all of Gay Head n be Widdiss need 19 signatur, or 10 percent of the votg rolls, to get the qutn on the ballot; ls than two weeks, he llected 24. He said his primary motivatn was a sire to rtore his tribe's stature the culture of southeastern New no pot has the movement to change the name foced on the 20th-century nnotatn of the word "gay, " which meant somethg que different when was affixed to this area durg the 17th century.

GAY HEAD OR AQUNAH? CHANGE TO A VOTE

Nowhere, at tim, has the lite balance between permanent rints and seasonal visors been more prer than Gay town tak s name om the spectacular Gay Head Cliffs, a craggy amalgamatn of red and brown clay that stretch for a e across the island's wtern promontory and plung 150 steep feet to the Atlantic Ocean. 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.

TRIBE WANTS NAME CHANGE FOR GAY HEAD

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. On Saturday, the Gay Head Light reached s fal stop on a 129-foot journey back om the se had occupied sce 1844, and which after more than a century of erosn was prerly close to the edge of the cliff.

HERE'S WHY HUFFPOST GAY VOIC JT CHANGED ITS NAME TO HUFFPOST QUEER VOIC

GAY HEAD -- The 267 registered voters this town on Martha's Veyard will ci today whether to stick wh more than 125 years of history or go back even farther to the area's origal Indian will nsir droppg the name Gay Head favor of Aqunah (-kw-ah), which means "land unr the hill. Turkgton, D-Falmouth, whose district clus Gay Head, told a Boston area voters said they have e to support the name change after rearchg the tribe's Manng, 78, said she voted agast change 1991 bee she liked the town name she grew up wh, but she will vote for this time. Adriana Ignac, a member of the Wampanoag tribe, also voted agast change last time, but said she backs said her elrly relativ favored keepg the name of Gay Head 1991 bee they grew up wh , and she went along out of rints who do not belong to the tribe also favor revertg to the origal name, but Rsell Smh is not one of them.

Today, for the very first time, we're thrilled to wele you to HuffPost Queer name change four-and-a-half years after we origally buted as HuffPost Gay Voic -- and after untls nversatns wh untls people, both si and outsi of the HuffPost I've had my own love affair wh the word "queer" for as long as I n remember (more on that a mute), at the time of our lnch 2011 some people felt that the term was too ntroversial, too divisive and, bee of s history as a slur, perhaps jt too paful to e.

GAY HEAD VOTED OUT AS MASS. TOWN'S NAME

"Queer" functns as an umbrella term that clus not only the lbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenr people of "LGBT, " but also those whose inti fall between, outsi of or stretch beyond those tegori, cludg genrqueer people, tersex people, asexual people, pansexual people, polyamoro people and those qutng their sexualy or genr, to name jt a few. 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.

THE HISTORY OF THE WORD “GAY”

” 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. Gayhead, October 25, 1805Sir: Clay and Oker of different lours om which this place rived s name ascend a Sheet of wd pened by the high Clifts and tch on the light Hoe Glass, which often requir cleang on the outsi � ted service ld weather, and addnal to what is necsary any other part of the Massachetts. In 1844, the tower was moved back om the edge of the erodg bluff about seventy-five feet, but the much-need new lighthoe and dwellg for Gay Head were not provid until after the formatn of the Lighthoe Board 1852.

After the light was electrified, the first-orr Frnel lens was removed om Gay Head 1952 and placed a brick tower built on the grounds of the Martha�s Veyard Historil Society Mm Edgartown.

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

E., for lbians, gays [homosexual mal], bisexuals, transgenr persons, and queer persons); seeks to elimate sodomy laws; and lls for an end to discrimatn agast LGBTQ persons employment, cred, hog, public acmodatns, and other areas of life.

GAY RIGHTS

) Gay rights prr to the 20th century Relig admonns agast sexual relatns between dividuals of the same sex (particularly men) long stigmatized such behavur, but most legal s Europe were silent on the subject of homosexualy and bisexualy. Dpe Paragraph 175 and the failure of the WhK to w s repeal, homosexual and bisexual men and women experienced a certa amount of eedom Germany, particularly durg the Weimar perd, between the end of World War I and the Nazi seizure of power. In the Uned Stat this greater visibily brought some backlash, particularly om the ernment and the police: the ernment often fired gay civil servants, the ary attempted to purge s ranks of gay soldiers (a policy enacted durg World War II), and police vice squads equently raid gay bars and arrted their patrons.

In the Uned Stat the first major male anizatn, found 1950–51 by Harry Hay Los Angel, was the Mattache Society (s name reputedly rived om a medieval French society of masked players, the Société Mattache, to reprent the public “maskg” of homosexualy), while the Dghters of Bilis (named after the Sapphic love poems of Pierre Louÿs, Chansons Bilis), found 1955 by Phyllis Lyon and Del Mart San Francis, was a leadg group for women. In Bra 1957 a missn chaired by Sir John Wolfenn issued a groundbreakg report (see Wolfenn Report) remendg that private homosexual liaisons between nsentg adults be removed om the doma of crimal law; a later the remendatn was implemented by Parliament the Sexual Offenc Act.

In the 1970s and ’80s, gay polil anizatns proliferated, particularly the Uned Stat and Europe, and spread to other parts of the globe, though their relative size, strength, and succs—and toleratn by thori—varied signifintly. Now headquartered Geneva and renamed the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn (ILGA World), plays a signifint role ordatg ternatnal efforts to promote human rights and fight discrimatn agast LGBTQ and tersex persons. This support, along wh mpaigns by gay activists urgg gay men and women to “e out of the closet” (ed, the late 1980s, Natnal Comg Out Day was tablished, and is now celebrated on October 11 most untri), enuraged gay men and women to enter the polil arena as ndidat.

THE FOTTEN SECRET LANGUAGE OF GAY MEN

At the lol and natnal levels, the number of openly gay policians creased dramatilly durg the 1990s and 2000s, and 2009 Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir beme prime mister of Iceland, which ma her the world’s first openly gay head of ernment. In Ai, Asia, and Lat Ameri, openly gay policians have had only limed succs wng office; notable electns to natnal legislatur clud Patria Jiménez Flor Mexi (1997), Mike Waters South Ai (1999), and Clodovil Hernans Brazil (2006).

SCIENTISTS MAY HAVE FALLY UNLOCKED PUZZLE OF WHY PEOPLE ARE GAY

Other issu of primary importance for the gay rights movement sce the 1970s clud batg the HIV/AIDS epimic and promotg disease preventn and fundg for rearch; lobbyg ernment for nondiscrimatory polici employment, hog, and other aspects of civil society; endg the ban on ary service for gay and lbian dividuals; expandg hate crim legislatn to clu protectns for gays, cludg transgenr dividuals; and securg marriage rights for same-sex upl (see same-sex marriage). Ary’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy (1993–2011), which had permted gay and lbian dividuals to serve the ary if they did not disclose their sexual orientatn or engage homosexual activy; the repeal effectively end the ban on homosexuals the ary.