Why Is The Term "Gay" Used As An Insult To Masculy?

A DAD’S ADVICE TO NEIGHBORHOOD KIDS: DON’T E GAY AS AN SULT

* is gay an insult *

That’s the qutn I wrtled wh as I nsoled my 7-year-old son who was cryg bee an olr kid the neighborhood kept llg him gay.

“Dad, why is beg gay stupid or bad? That means g “gay” as an sult, tellg someone they “throw like a girl” and llg someone a “retard” is banned our fay. They know our gay iends, they have gay relativ they love, and we discs on a route basis why ments such as those are so hurtful.

So, when my son heard olr kids he looks up to g gay as an sult, a part of him wonred if his idol was right. I also remd him that many people around him might be gay or qutng their sexualy and asked him how he thks they’d feel if everyone ed gay as a pejorative. The Trevor Project, a nonprof focg on suici preventn efforts among lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, queer and qutng youth, timat more than 1.

IS LLG A HOMOSEXUAL PERSON “GAY” OFFENSIVE?

“Gay is an inty term, not an sult. "Gay", on s face, is not a rogatory term.

It's typilly preferred by those to whom appli over the term "homosexual", the technil nature of which mak this state of beg sound like a munible disease or mental illns (which, as recently as the DSM-II, seventh edn, was, tegorized as a pathologil phobia of the oppose sex). Many advocy groups, such as GLAAD (Gay/Lbian Associatn Agast Defamatn) and terms they promote for e the media (such as LGBT) rporate this term, though this isn't to say the terms will always be acceptable for this reason; the group name often persists long after the words behd them have fallen om favor, to avoid the nfn of a rebrandg of the group. "Queer", an old slang term for gay men, and "fag"/"faggot", origally AE slang for a wimp or unmanly person, but which me to be associated wh the stereotypil "swishy" gay man, have bee si terms; still appropriate when ed by a ntral party or a "straight" person, but acceptable ntext between gay men.