How ‘Gay’ Came to Mean ‘Homosexual’

Contents:

• HOW TO KNOW IF YOU ARE GAY
• SO, ARE YOU LIKE, GAY OR I SOMETHING? WHAT? THAT?
• WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?
• COMMENTARY: WHY “THAT’S SO GAY” IS OKAY…OR NOT
• GAY
• HOW TO SAY ARE YOU GAY RSIAN

HOW TO KNOW IF YOU ARE GAY

Keep md that even if you have a sexual experience wh someone of the same genr or another genr, that don’t necsarily mean that you’re gay. That means, for example, that you n be transgenr but also straight (for stance, you might intify as a woman and feel attracted to men) or gay (e.

If you have had romantic experienc or fantasi volvg people who are the same genr as you, then there is a good chance you are gay or bisexual, but 's okay if you're a ltle nfed. Even if you don’t thk you are, or if you don’t mean to be, I guarantee that on a regular basis you say homophobic thgs you don’t even realise are actually credibly and harmful.

From playground stuff loads of people still seem to have not grown out of, like “no homo” and “that’s so gay”, to llg your “gay bt iend”, qutng if our sexualy is legimate, or askg -pth qutns about our sex liv. I n’t que believe we still need to expla this, but if you’re g “gay” a negative way when what you really mean is “that’s so annoyg/stupid/lame”, you’re lerally jt beg homophobic. Okay so we’re not allowed to hold hands, talk about beg gay or even thk about mentng gog to Pri, but when Fiat 500 Lucy and Football Twter Jack start pretty much shaggg a club, we’re meant to be okay wh that?

SO, ARE YOU LIKE, GAY OR I SOMETHING? WHAT? THAT?

If you’re worried about people sayg that to you, means you thk there’s somethg wrong wh beg gay that you don’t want to be associated wh. A lot of have found extremely difficult gettg to the place we’re at now, we go through a lot of uncertaty and ternalised homophobia to reach a place of fort. If you’ve got a story you’d like to tell – whether ’s an cint of homophobia on mp, an experience you’d like to share, or anythg you thk we should hear, get touch nfince by emailg [email protected].

A Gui for Women Concerned About Their Men, but simply put, some men have no sire to be nnected wh gay culture, and scerely nsir themselv to not be gay or bisexual. This would be like sayg that gay men who don’t like anal sex are really straight but don’t know yet, and their butt will have to tell them at some pot.

WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?

LGBT is still a popular term ed to discs genr and sexual mori, but all GSRM are wele beyond lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr people who nsent to participate a safe space. In other words, 5-10% of people experience same-sex sexual attractn or behavr; of urse, this don't speak to what mak people gay. It very much appears that same-sex sexual attractn is not a choice but actg on is; so if you fe gay as the mere prence of same-sex attractn, then om everythg we unrstand, beg gay is not a choice.

COMMENTARY: WHY “THAT’S SO GAY” IS OKAY…OR NOT

If, on the other hand, you nsir someone to be gay only if they act on their same-sex attractn then beg gay n be nsired a choice pendg on an dividual's behavr. Whether science n ultimately prove the blogy of beg gay or not, 's important to support all adults their choic no matter how they intify. I e equently, much to my straight iends’ nfn (and some of my gay iends’ dismay) several ocsns, people have lled me out on the age of “that’s so gay, ” cludg my own fay members.

My equent arguments have often been, “I mean gay as lame, not gay as gay, ” or, “Whatever, that’s not what I meant and you know , ” or even, “Whatever, language evolv. “Gay” riv om the 14th Century English-French word “gai” (I’m not exactly sure how to pronounce that, I took Spanish) meang “cheery.

And sce beg “gay” was nsired beg a b of a heathen, ’s only natural that if you had proper blogil sex and wanted a wife, two kids, and all that nonsense, you’d be nsired “straight. By the end of the 1960s, “gay” had been well tablished as meang “homosexual” om s “reee” wasn’t until the 1970s that “gay” had veloped a pejorative meang.

GAY

So, at least when people first started sayg, “that’s gay, ” the associatn that beg gay is negative was still is, until the 21st century, when gay culture began to enter the mastream, people started to object to the e of “gay” the pejorative sense as offensive and homophobic. Here’s a good example: Brish rad host Chris Moyl once said on air, “I do not want that one, ’s gay, ” reference to a rgtone, g que the uproar. A 2006 BBC lg by the Board of Governors on Moyl’s e of the word stated: “The word ‘gay’, addn to beg ed to mean ‘homosexual’ or ‘reee’, was often now ed to mean ‘lame’ or ‘bbish’.

This is a wispread current age of the word amongst young people… The word ‘gay’ … need not be offensive… or homophobic… Moyl was simply keepg up wh velopments English age. ” The ernors believed that scribg a rg tone as “‘gay’, the DJ was nveyg that he thought was “bbish”, rather than “homosexual”.

HOW TO SAY ARE YOU GAY RSIAN

”So, now that you’ve read a summarized history of the word, “gay” and how has had a different fn, like, every other century, do that change your opn on the phrase, “that’s gay”?