Gay Defn & Meang - Merriam-Webster

Contents:

• GAY
• SYNONYMS OF GAY
• MEANG OF GAY ENGLISH
• GAY (ADJ.)
• THE ORIGS OF THE WORD ‘GAY’

GAY

Pri, formerly known as Gay Pri, is a regnn of LGBTQ inty, affirmatn of equal rights, and celebratn of visibily, digny, and diversy the LGBTQ muny. While the word homosexual is still ocsnally ed some ntexts, you might have noticed that don’t make an appearance any versn of the LGBTQ acronym.

As our age note on the term stat, “up until 1973, homosexualy was listed The Diagnostic and Statistil Manual of Mental Disorrs (DSM), psychiatry’s standard reference on the classifitn of mental illns. People aware of this former tegorizatn feel that the term homosexual still rri a negative nnotatn.

” In fact, the term homosexual was liberately rejected by early gay rights activists bee, acrdg to The New York Tim, “they did not want to be intified as exclively sexual begs.

SYNONYMS OF GAY

Gay, on the other hand, n be ed to scribe a person of any genr who experienc same-sex attractn, although is most often ed to scribe a man who is attracted to men. On June 28, 1969, the New York Cy police raid the Stonewall Inn, a bar equented by gay and genr-nonnformg people (at a time when terms like LGBTQ didn’t yet exist). They attempted to arrt the gay and trans bar patrons, which started a seri of protts agast the police.

Partially rponse to Stonewall, 1970, queer activists New York Cy anized a march to Central Park wh the theme “Gay Pri. Trans activist Slyvia Rivera particular advoted for the more forceful slogan “Gay power.

Queer lerally means “strange or odd om a nventnal viewpot, ” and by at least by the late 1800s, queer was ployed as a rogatory term for an effemate or gay man.

MEANG OF GAY ENGLISH

Queer was seen as a way to refer to gays and lbians whout beg genr-sentialist or g divisns wh the muny. 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.

GAY (ADJ.)

Biren, also known as JEB, were leadg figur gay and lbian movements the District and surroundg areas. 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. To tt the ncept, the agency is enrollg 2, 000 gay men willg to donate blood for a pilot study.

The exampl are programmatilly piled om var onle sourc to illtrate current age of the word 'gay. While all the words mean "keenly alive and spired, " gay strs plete eedom om re and overflowg spirs. The words animated and gay n be ed siar ntexts, but animated appli to what is spired and active.

THE ORIGS OF THE WORD ‘GAY’

While the synonyms sprightly and gay are close meang, sprightly suggts lightns and spired vigor of manner or w. The synonyms vivac and gay are sometim terchangeable, but vivac suggts an activens of gture and w, often playful or allurg.

(Defn of gay om the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictnary & Ths © Cambridge Universy Prs). Although Lbian, Gay, Bi, Trans, and Queer (LGBTQ+) people have been around for lennia, the evolutn of language means that those wh the muny ntue to fd more clive and accurate terms to bt scribe themselv, as Stonewall’s ever-evolvg glossary of terms prov. Aromantic people are also the ace tegory and, siarly to asexual people, may intify as gay, lbian, heterosexual, or queer to fe the directn of their attractn to others.

”Gay: The word “gay” is generally ed to scribe someone who is sexually or romantilly attracted to people of the same genr. Homosexual: This antiquated term was ed historilly to refer to people who were attracted to people of the same genr, but ’s rarely ed today.