Pamela Pl the New York Tim: Let's Say Gay

Contents:

• LET’S SAY GAY
• GAY RIGHTS VS. FREE SPEECHSUPREME COURT BACKS WEB DIGNER OPPOSED TO SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
• WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT A SEEMGLY FAKE DOCUMENT A GAY RIGHTS CASE
• WHAT DO ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ ACTUALLY SAY?
• PAMELA PL THE NEW YORK TIM: LET'S SAY GAY
• AS A GAY MAN, I’LL NEVER BE NORMAL

LET’S SAY GAY

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTPamela Bons /Visum, via RxLast month, the new print of the advocy group Human Rights Campaign, Kelley Robson, posted a six-and-a-half-mute vio to troduce herself and ame the missn of her anizatn, which was found 40 years ago by the gay activist Steve Enan to help fund polil mpaigns for pro-gay-rights ndidat. The word “queer” is climbg equency and n be ed terchangeably wh “gay, ” which self not so long ago replaced the dour and fatly judgy “homosexual.

In the same perds, e of “gay” has fallen om 2, 228 to 1, 531 — still more monly ed, but the directn of the evolutn is impossible to miss.

GAY RIGHTS VS. FREE SPEECHSUPREME COURT BACKS WEB DIGNER OPPOSED TO SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

’ media, treat the word ‘lbian’ like ’s the plague, ” noted Julia Diana Robertson the lbian publitn The Velvet ’s be clear: Many lbians and gay people are fe wh this shift. For one thg, “gay” and “queer” are not synonymo, as they are creasgly treated, particularly among Gen Zers and lennials. Q., ” which sometim clus addnal symbols and letters, reprents so many inti unrelated to sexual orientatn that gays and lbians n feel crowd week on “CBS News Sunday Morng, ” the wrer David Sedaris said he was done “fightg the word ‘queer.

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT A SEEMGLY FAKE DOCUMENT A GAY RIGHTS CASE

“Gay” has a clear, specific meang that appli to both men and women: “homosexual, ” which is the first entry most dictnari. ” Another fn refers not only to gay people but also to “a person whose sexual orientatn or genr inty falls outsi the heterosexual mastream or the genr bary, ” acrdg to That uld mean “transgenr, ” “genr ntral, ” “nonbary, ” “agenr, ” “pangenr, ” “genrqueer, ” “misexual, ” “asexual, ” “two spir, ” “third genr” or all, none or some batn of the above. Queer theory is about liberately breakg down normative tegori around genr and sex, particularly bary on like men and women, straight and gay.

WHAT DO ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ ACTUALLY SAY?

Sayg you’re queer uld mean you’re gay; uld mean you’re straight; uld mean you’re uncid about your genr or that you prefer not to say.

Sayg you’re queer uld mean as ltle as havg kissed another girl your sophomore year at llege. It uld mean you valiantly plowed through the prose of Judh Butler a urse on queerns the Elizabethan the broad spectm of possibily, ’s no surprise that many people — gay or straight — have no ia what means when someone self-intifi as this is important: Not all gay people see themselv as queer.

PAMELA PL THE NEW YORK TIM: LET'S SAY GAY

Many lbian and gay people fe themselv terms of sexual orientatn, not genr.

There are gay men, for example, who grew up sperately needg reassurance that they were jt as much a boy as any hypermanly heterosexual. Whereas homosexualy is a sexual orientatn one nnot choose, queerns is somethg one n, acrdg to Jam Kirchick, the thor of “Secret Cy: The Hidn History of Gay Washgton.

” Queerns, he argu, is a fashn and a polil statement that not all gay people subscribe to. “Whereas the arc of the gay rights movement, and the dividual liv of most gay people, has been a stggle agast margaly.

AS A GAY MAN, I’LL NEVER BE NORMAL

The send fn for “gay” most dictnari is somethg along the l of “happy, ” “lighthearted” and “reee. ”What I hear most often om gay and lbian iends regardg the word “queer” is somethg along the l of what Sedaris poted out: “Nobody nsulted me!