How ‘Gay’ Came to Mean ‘Homosexual’

Contents:

• SENOR CHANG'S "HA, GAY!"
• A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
• ABOUT THE CENTERSCE 1983 THE CENTER HAS BEEN SUPPORTG, FOSTERG AND CELEBRATG THE LGBT MUNY OF NEW YORK CY. FD MORE RMATN ON AND OUR WORK ABOUT THE CENTER. VIS ABOUT THE CENTEROUR MISSNCYBER CENTERCENTER HISTORYRACE EQUYMEDIA CENTERLEARSHIP & STAFFEMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNICORPORATE PARTNERSHIPSANNUAL REPORTS & FANCIAL INFORMATNCONTACT USHOURS & LOTNSEMAPSUPPORT THE CENTER
• GAY (ADJ.)
• HA GAY

SENOR CHANG'S "HA, GAY!"

In one of the scen, Jeff Wger (Joel McHale) tri to spire his stunts by tellg the class that "the most important tool is rpect, " to which Señor Ben Chang (played by Ken Jeong) simply retorts "Ha, gayyyyy! 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. As such, was mon amongst the gay muny to refer to one another as “gay” s before this was a monly known fn (reportedly homosexual men were llg one another gay as early as the 1920s).

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.

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

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis's h song Same Love, which has bee an unofficial anthem of the pro-gay marriage mpaign the US, reflects how many gay people feel about their mocks those who "thk 's a cisn, and you n be cured wh some treatment and relign - man-ma rewirg of a predisposn". The evolutn of lbianism is relatively unrstudied - may work a siar way or be pletely gen that for homosexualy do other thgs tooThe allele - or group of gen - that sometim s for homosexual orientatn may at other tim have a strong reproductive benef. "We know that women tend to like more feme behavural featur and facial featur their men, and that might be associated wh thgs like good parentg skills or greater empathy, " says Qazi Rahman, -thor of Born Gay; The Psychoblogy of Sex Orientatn.

Gay people were 'helpers the nt'Image source, Jeante MankelowImage ptn, The fa'afafe of Samoa dislike beg lled "gay" or "homosexual"Some rearchers believe that to unrstand the evolutn of gay people, we need to look at how they f to the wir culture. The ia is that gay people pensate for their lack of children by promotg the reproductive fns of brothers or sisters, ntributg money or performg other uncle-like activi such as babystg or tutorg. Vasey hasn't yet measured jt how much havg a homosexual orientatn boosts siblgs' reproductn rate, but he has tablished that Samoa "gay" men spend more time on uncle-like activi than "straight" men.

ABOUT THE CENTERSCE 1983 THE CENTER HAS BEEN SUPPORTG, FOSTERG AND CELEBRATG THE LGBT MUNY OF NEW YORK CY. FD MORE RMATN ON AND OUR WORK ABOUT THE CENTER. VIS ABOUT THE CENTEROUR MISSNCYBER CENTERCENTER HISTORYRACE EQUYMEDIA CENTERLEARSHIP & STAFFEMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNICORPORATE PARTNERSHIPSANNUAL REPORTS & FANCIAL INFORMATNCONTACT USHOURS & LOTNSEMAPSUPPORT THE CENTER

Vasey speculat that part of the reason the fa'afafe are more attentive to their nephews and niec is their acceptance Samoan culture pared to gay men the Wt and Japan ("You n't help your k if they've rejected you"). That hypothis has led Vasey to speculate that the gay men who intify as men and have mascule tras - that is to say, most gay men the Wt - are scend om men who had a cross-genred people do have childrenImage source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Elton John and David Furnish have had two children wh a surrogate mother, although the inty of the blogil father is secretIn the US, around 37% of lbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual people have a child, about 60% of which are blogil.

GAY (ADJ.)

Acrdg to the Williams Instute, gay upl that have children have an average of figur may not be high enough to sta geic tras specific to this group, but the evolutnary blogist Jeremy Yor pots out a blog post that for much of morn history gay people haven't been livg openly gay liv. In the 1940s, US sex rearcher Aled Ksey found that while jt 4% of whe men were exclively gay after adolcence, 10% had a three-year perd of gay activy and 37% had gay sex at some pot their liv.

This has nothg to do wh Gee Orwell, but scrib the observatn that boys wh olr brothers are signifintly more likely to bee gay - wh every olr brother the chance of homosexualy creas by about a third. 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.

HA GAY

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.

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 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.