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

Contents:

• 15 EVERYDAY WORDS ED AS GAY SLURS DIFFERENT LANGUAG
• GAY PUPILS SULTED BY HOMOPHOBIC PHRAS ED AT SCHOOL
• WHY KIDS THK THE WORD “GAY” IS A SWEAR WORD
• THE 55 PHRAS GAY MEN MOST OFTEN GO THROUGH...
• WHY "GAY" ISN'T A BAD WORD FOR CHILDREN
• WHAT WORDS CAN I SAY TO DECLARE THAT I’M GAY?

15 EVERYDAY WORDS ED AS GAY SLURS DIFFERENT LANGUAG

To expand the rults, click one of the above tegori.homosexual, homosexual personThere are no tegori unrneath this one.This tegory is also filed unr:Thgs → sexualy (related to). Ntie – bear – benr – bottom – bum band – bum chum – bumr – bummer – butch – butt hugger – rpet muncher – tcher – chaser – chickenhawk – chicken hawk – cub – drag kg – dyke – fag – faggot – Fairy – femme – flamer – u – fudge packer – gay – gaylord – girliend – GLBT – hasbian – homo – homo thug – the closet – jobby jabber – lemon – lez – lipstick lbian – mge muncher – mo – nellie – nelly – Peter Puffer – pole smoker – poof – Poofter – power top – puff – queer – shirt lifter – sister – versatile – wasbian. homosexual male who prefers beg sodomized rather than sodomizg durg sex.Pl is fely a bottom.How do you know?

I n fd ltle evince of this on the ter, but sce gay culture is passed down through hearsay and gossip, I’m cludg this. Some archivist or queer historian may rroborate or squash this ia, one I heard om a gay elr and pass on to you — that “queer” was actually the word preferred by the first wave of queens, h om the closet, sweatg word-of-mouth disthequ that migrated through the cy.

So many zgers are rerd om those trials that this seems plsible: Sir John Douglas, the Marqus of Queensbury (serly), who first lled Wil a sodome and lnched the gay playwright’s epic mise, reportedly lled Wil a “snob queer” durg the proceedgs. A mon slogan you n still fd on T-shirts and queer bars across the untry is “Not gay as happy, but queer as ‘fuck you.

GAY PUPILS SULTED BY HOMOPHOBIC PHRAS ED AT SCHOOL

“Queer” addrs the fluidy of genr and sexual orientatn and f those who e as people foced on problems largely ignored by the gay rights movement: racism, wage equaly, women’s rights, transphobia, and so on.

“Homo” is still a slur to many gay men, but jt as “queer” beme a power term, “homo” has seen a recent surge populary. The word beme cemented antigay lgo wh the famo CBS Reports episo “The Homosexuals, ” which aired on March 7, 1967 (I would be born on the same day 25 years later).

A self-intified gay woman, she rried the bt sign the crowd, one that exemplified slur-reclamatn: “DYKE: We might not go down history, but we’ll do down on your sister! It’s easy to see how “faggot” beme a hate word wh s implitn that gay men should that meang, words like “flamer” and “flamg” formed as rogatory terms for feme men.

WHY KIDS THK THE WORD “GAY” IS A SWEAR WORD

“Fairy” — an old-school antigay dig — has been stripped of s power by the Radil Faerie movement and new-era queers.

”There may have been gay people his cy, but the faerie muny is a smaller subgroup wh the larger muny that celebrat diversy, self-exprsn, genr fluidy, spirualism, and sexual openns.

THE 55 PHRAS GAY MEN MOST OFTEN GO THROUGH...

” This is a mon English gay slur — one that, acrdg to some iends London, is the equivalent of “faggot” across the For: I’ll have to ask them if “poof” is makg a rurgence as a power Agast: It’s offensive to our neighbors the U. Werk , are a ln different “queens” old-school gay lexin: drag queens, gym queens, leather queens, size queens (ahem). ” This one is so childish that ’s hardly worth mentng, but acrdg to the ter ’s still a term homophob e.

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

Sce ’s a clear mentary on gay sex (meant to attack parts of our timacy that untls gay men have securi about), let me jt say that I’m absolutely a fudge packer — or whatever you ll the receptive end of that term.

WHAT WORDS CAN I SAY TO DECLARE THAT I’M GAY?

” Here’s a history lson urty of the History News Network:The ‘nance, ’ or Nancy Boy, was a gay burlque character om the 1930s who brought guffaws and belly lghs as he pranced about the stage, creatg mpy scen and sketch of gay life.

In the late 1930s, New York Mayor Frello LaGuardia, fearful of how the lurid burlque shows would make his cy look the upg World’s Fair of 1939, cracked down on the of LaGuardia’s anger was aimed at the Nance, whom crics said created dienc of lty gay men havg sex the dark balni of the burlque emporiums. If I had the sh, I’d buy them For: In 2017, we’re the bs of takg back antigay Agast: Some guys don’t want to be “nancy boys” bee ternalized homophobia exists. As bt as I n dig, term for a gay bottom origat om a '70s sndal volvg Brish polician Jeremy Thorpe, who was acced of attemptg to murr his male lover, Norman Stt, ’s all very nfg, and the origs of the term self seem bog.

To reclaim “sodome” is to do battle wh the scriptur — the same book so many antigay csars have clutched their fists, red-faced, through sermons about why we shouldn’t be allowed to adopt children or be legally ’s hard to note the mers of the Bible when ’s been the batterg ram of antigay policians, punds, and hate lears for s. Unfortunately, there are a few other vers that get explic regardg homosexualy: Levic 20:13, 1 Corthians 6:9, Levic 18:22, Romans 1:25-27. And y, do show that homophobia is alive and well, but they uld at least get a b more imagative wh .