Gay Defn & Meang - Merriam-Webster

Contents:

• THE HISTORY OF THE WORD “GAY”
• GAY (ADJ.)
• THE ORIG OF THE WORD ‘GAY’ S HOMOSEXUAL NTEXT
• THE ORIGS OF THE WORD ‘GAY’
• A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
• GAY
• WHEN DID "GAY" BEE ASSOCIATED WH HOMOSEXUALY? [DUPLITE]
• THE HISTORY OF THE WORD "GAY" [CLOSED]

THE HISTORY OF THE WORD “GAY”

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.

In 1951, gay appeared the Oxford English Dictnary for the first time as slang for homosexual, but was most likely ed this way “unrground” at least 30 years earlier. ” 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. When gay is ed today to mean stupid or unsirable ( has only been ed this way sce the 1990s), rri wh a history of negative judgment and rigid ias about who or what is acceptable.

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. 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.

GAY (ADJ.)

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. [John Boswell, "Christiany, Social Tolerance, and Homosexualy, " 1980]As a teen slang word meang "bad, ferr, unsirable, " whout reference to sexualy, om (n.

The term gay is equently ed as a synonym for homosexual; female homosexualy is often referred to as different tim and different cultur, homosexual behavur has been varly approved of, tolerated, punished, and banned.

Homosexualy was not unmon ancient Greece and Rome, and the relatnships between adult and adolcent mal particular have bee a chief foc of Wtern classicists recent years. Others—om factns wh mastream Prottantism to anizatns of Reform rabbis—have advoted, on theologil as well as social grounds, the full acceptance of homosexuals and their relatnships.

THE ORIG OF THE WORD ‘GAY’ S HOMOSEXUAL NTEXT

Morn velopments Attus toward homosexualy are generally flux, partially as a rult of creased polil activism (see gay rights movement) and efforts by homosexuals to be seen not as aberrant personali but as differg om “normal” dividuals only their sexual orientatn. The nflictg views of homosexualy—as a variant but normal human sexual behavur on one hand, and as psychologilly viant behavur on the other—rema prent most societi the 21st century, but they have been largely rolved ( the profsnal sense) most veloped untri. The Amerin Psychiatric Associatn, for example, classified “ego-syntonic homosexualy” (the ndn of a person ntent wh his or her homosexualy) as a mental illns 1973.

Selected theori of homosexualy Psychologists the 19th and 20th centuri, most of whom classified homosexualy as a form of mental illns, veloped a variety of theori on s orig. The stereotyp of male homosexuals as weak and effemate and lbians as mascule and aggrsive, which were wispread the Wt as recently as the 1950s and early ’60s, have largely been disrd.

THE ORIGS OF THE WORD ‘GAY’

The Ksey report of 1948, for example, found that 30 percent of adult Amerin mal among Ksey’s subjects had engaged some homosexual activy and that 10 percent reported that their sexual practice had been exclively homosexual for a perd of at least three years between the ag of 16 and 55. A range of more recent surveys, ncerng predomantly homosexual behavur as well as same-genr sexual ntact adulthood, have yield rults that are both higher and lower than those intified by Ksey. Instead of tegorizg people absolute terms as eher homosexual or heterosexual, Ksey observed a spectm of sexual activy, of which exclive orientatns of eher type make up the extrem.

Although the topic of homosexualy was ltle discsed the public fom durg the early part of the 20th century, beme a polil issue many Wtern untri durg the late 20th century.

After the 1969 Stonewall rts, which New York Cy policemen raid a gay bar and met wh staed ristance, many homosexuals were embolned to intify themselv as gay men or lbians to iends, to relativ, and even to the public at large.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

In rponse to their activism, many jurisdictns enacted laws banng discrimatn agast homosexuals, and an creasg number of employers Ameri and European untri agreed to offer “domtic partner” benefs siar to the health re, life surance and, some s, pensn benefs available to heterosexual married upl.

Although ndns for gay people had generally improved most of Europe and North Ameri at the turn of the 21st century, elsewhere the world vlence agast gay people ntued. Gay stunts at Jamai’s Northern Caribbean Universy were beaten, and an anti-gay group Brazil by the name of Arda Corao (“Wake Up, Dear”) was blamed for murrg several gay people. In one such stance, Albania repealed s sodomy statut 1995, and gay upl Amsterdam 2001 were legally married unr the same laws that ern heterosexual marriage (rather than unr laws that allowed them to “register” or form “domtic” partnerships).

GAY

Still others, notably those the public eye, had their sexual orientatn revealed the media and agast their will by activists eher for or agast gay rights—a ntroversial practice known as “outg. Elsewhere the world AIDS was transmted prcipally by heterosexual sex, but the Uned Stat and some European centr was particularly prevalent urban gay muni.

As a rult homosexuals were at the foreont of advocy for rearch to the disease and support for s victims through groups such as Gay Men’s Health Crisis New York Cy.

The disease also took a heavy toll on the arts muni the centr, and virtually none of the artistic output of gay men the late 20th century was untouched by the topic and the sense of great loss. However, most shared wh gay men the sire to have a secure place the world muny at large, unchallenged by the fear of vlence, the stggle for equal treatment unr the law, the attempt to silence, and any other form of civil behavur that impos send-class article was most recently revised and updated by Alison Eldridge. Use of the word “gay” a homosexual ntext may date to as long ago as Paris the late 16th century, when homosexuals were reportedly lled ‘gai, ” but there are a uple of other trigug and perhaps more provable theori.

WHEN DID "GAY" BEE ASSOCIATED WH HOMOSEXUALY? [DUPLITE]

Homosexual Amerin ary personnel wanrg the streets of London durg World War I may have picked up on the phrase and brought back to the Uned Stat after 1918.

THE HISTORY OF THE WORD "GAY" [CLOSED]

In Abigail van Buren’s “Dear Abby” advice lumn of Augt 9, 1982 (#721 below), a rear objects to the e of the word “gay” to scribe homosexuals and feels “queer” is more appropriate. If, for example, a homosexual man were at a party and started nversg wh a man he found attractive, he might throw the word slyly to the nversatn to see how the other man reacted. ” As a homosexual New Yorker, he undoubtedly unrstood the double entendre, as would have many New York theatergoers, but s meang would have been lost on most dienc the provc.