Why "Gay" Isn't a Bad Word for Children | HuffPost Contributor

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

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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.

GAY (ADJ.)

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.

GAY

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. 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.

MEANG OF GAY ENGLISH

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. 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.

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

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.

SYNONYMS FOR NOT GAY

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.

THE ORIGS OF THE WORD ‘GAY’

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.

GAY (HOMOSEXUAL) AND GAY (HAPPY)

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. [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.

THE SOLUTN TO "GAY" INSULTS: FREEDOM OF SPEECH

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. 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.