Gay Defn & Meang - Merriam-Webster

Contents:

• SYNONYMS OF GAY
• NO, IT'S NOT "GAY": WHY WE NEED TO STOP USG THE TERM IN A NEGATIVE WAY
• GAY (ADJ.)
• GAY
• MEANG OF GAY ENGLISH
• WHY "GAY" ISN'T A BAD WORD FOR CHILDREN
• SYNONYMS FOR NOT GAY
• THE ORIGS OF THE WORD ‘GAY’
• GAY (HOMOSEXUAL) AND GAY (HAPPY)
• THE SOLUTN TO "GAY" INSULTS: FREEDOM OF SPEECH

SYNONYMS OF GAY

LOG IN WITH FACEBOOKHome›Health and Wellns›No, It's Not "Gay": Why We Need To Stop Usg The Term In A Negative Way›Health and Wellns.

NO, IT'S NOT "GAY": WHY WE NEED TO STOP USG THE TERM IN A NEGATIVE WAY

The word gay has slowly evolved om beg a harmls term meang happs to scribg someone's sexual orientatn, and now has bee a word we e to scribe anythg unappealg.

A problem emerg, however, for people who are actually gay; people who fd their inty and tth a word that other people e to scribe somethg that they don't like. More importantly, forms the way that gay people view a child growg up and hearg the word gay ed a negative ntext, you are naturally gog to associate beg gay wh negative implitns.

Children who are stgglg to e out as gay are gog to feel els and stupid and be aaid to be themselv society bee of the ntext which they have been exposed to the word. In high school, I was told by a teacher that we give too much power to words like "retard" and "gay, " and other such rogatory labels. Long before hookup apps like Grdr and Scff, gay and bisexual men seekg sual sex wore lored handkerchiefs their pant pockets ditg what kd of sex they were seekg and whether they were a domant/top or submissive/bottom.

GAY (ADJ.)

The lor is pretty extensive and clus var kks and fetish, and is still ed today by gay clothg brands like Nasty Pig and CellBlock 13 — and, obvly, by kky gay men.

GAY

As a surname, Philipp Gay), om Old French gai "joyful, happy; pleasant, agreeably charmg; forward, pert; light-lored" (12c. The suggtn of immoraly the word n be traced back at least to the 1630s, if not to Chcer:But oure bed he was so sh and gay. ) begs to appear psychologil wrg the late 1940s, evintly picked up om gay slang and not always easily distguished om the olr sense:After discharge A.

MEANG OF GAY ENGLISH

He was not happy at the farm and went to a Wtern cy where he associated wh a homosexual crowd, beg "gay, " and wearg female cloth and makp. 240]The associatn wh (male) homosexualy likely got a boost om the term gay t, ed as far back as 1893 Amerin English for "young hobo, " one who is new on the road, also one who sometim do jobs.

"A Gay Cat, " said he, "is a loafg laborer, who works maybe a week, gets his wag and vagabonds about huntg for another 'pick and shovel' job. Gay ts were severely and celly abed by "real" tramps and bums, who nsired them "an ferr orr of begs who begs of and otherwise preys upon the bum — as were a jackal followg up the kg of beasts" [Prof. McCook, "Tramps, " "The Public Treatment of Pperism, " 1893], but some acunts report certa olr tramps would domate a gay t and employ him as a sort of slave.

In "Soclogy and Social Rearch" (1932-33) a paragraph on the "gay t" phenomenon not, "Homosexual practic are more mon than rare this group, " and gey t "homosexual boy" is attted Noel Erske's 1933 dictnary of "Unrworld & Prison Slang" (gey is a Sttish variant of gay) "Dictnary of Amerin Slang" reports that gay (adj. Rawson ["Wicked Words"] not a male prostute g gay reference to male homosexuals (but also to female prostut) London's notor Cleveland Street Sndal of 1889. Ayto ["20th Century Words"] lls attentn to the ambiguo e of the word the 1868 song "The Gay Young Clerk the Dry Goods Store, " by U.

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

[John Boswell, "Christiany, Social Tolerance, and Homosexualy, " 1980]As a teen slang word meang "bad, ferr, unsirable, " whout reference to sexualy, om (n. In Middle English meant "excellent person, noble lady, gallant knight, " also "somethg gay or bright; an ornament or badge" (c. 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.

Rapoe, who is gay, is an outspoken advote for LGBTQ+ rights and was a lear the natnal team’s fight for genr equaly, which paid off last year when U. Jenna Lyons, the first openly gay hoewife, and Jsel Taank, the first Indian hoewife, jo the diverse st tend to better reprent all of the different kds of New Yorkers.

SYNONYMS FOR NOT GAY

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. 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?

THE ORIGS OF THE WORD ‘GAY’

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. 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.

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. 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.

”Liftyle - (see Offensive Terms to Avoid) Inaccurate term ed by anti-gay extremists to nigrate lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr liv. As there is no one straight liftyle, there is no one lbian, gay, bisexual or transgenr Lovg Men (MLM) - Commonly ed by muni of lor to note the attractn of men to Who Have Sex wh Men - men, cludg those who do not intify themselv as homosexual or bisexual, who engage sexual activy wh other men (ed public health ntexts to avoid excludg men who intify as heterosexual) Gay - Dcrib people who self-intify as lbian or gay their personal, public and/or profsnal liv. Qutng - The procs of nsirg or explorg one’s sexual orientatn and/or genr Orientatn - The scientifilly accurate term for an dividual’s endurg physil, romantic and/or emotnal attractn to members of the same and/or oppose sex, cludg lbian, gay, bisexual and heterosexual (straight) orientatns.

GAY (HOMOSEXUAL) AND GAY (HAPPY)

Avoid the offensive term “sexual preference, ” which is ed to suggt that beg gay or lbian is voluntary and therefore “curable.

THE SOLUTN TO "GAY" INSULTS: FREEDOM OF SPEECH

For example, a man who transns om male to female and is attracted to other women would be intified as a lbian or a gay woman.

Bee of the clil history of the word “homosexual, ” is aggrsively ed by anti-gay extremists to suggt that gay people are somehow diseased or psychologilly/emotnally disorred – notns discreded by the Amerin Psychologil Associatn and the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn the 1970s. Intifyg a same-sex uple as “a homosexual uple, ” characterizg their relatnship as “a homosexual relatnship, ” or intifyg their timacy as “homosexual sex” is extremely offensive and should be a le, try to avoid labelg an activy, emotn or relatnship “gay, ” “lbian” or “bisexual” unls you would ll the same activy, emotn or relatnship “straight” if engaged by someone of another orientatn.

Offensive: “sexual preference”Preferred: “sexual orientatn” or “orientatn” The term “sexual preference” is typilly ed to suggt that beg lbian, gay or bisexual is a choice and therefore n and should be “cured.

” Sexual orientatn is the accurate scriptn of an dividual’s endurg physil, romantic and/or emotnal attractn to members of the same and/or oppose sex and is clive of lbians, gay men, bisexuals and straight men and women.

Offensive: “gay liftyle” or “homosexual liftyle”Preferred: “gay liv, ” “gay and lbian liv” There is no sgle lbian, gay or bisexual liftyle. The phrase “gay liftyle” is ed to nigrate lbians and gay men, suggtg that their orientatn is a choice and therefore n and should be “cured.

”Offensive: “admted homosexual” or “avowed homosexual”Preferred: “openly lbian, ” “openly gay, ” “openly bisexual” Dated term ed to scribe those who are openly lbian, gay or bisexual or who have recently e out of the closet.