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

Contents:

• WHY "GAY" ISN'T A BAD WORD FOR CHILDREN
• "THAT'S SO GAY" IS JT SO WRONG
• THE 'GAY' WORD: WHAT DO MEAN WHEN YOUNG PEOPLE E NEGATIVELY?
• PORTLAND DISSENTSUBSCRIBESIGN {"@NTEXT":","@TYPE":"NEWSARTICLE","URL":","MAENTYOFPAGE":","HEADLE":"IS 'GAY' A BAD WORD?","SCRIPTN":"AND JT WHAT IS 'QUEER?'","IMAGE":[],"DATEPUBLISHED":"2022-07-31T18:55:28+00:00","DATEMODIFIED":"2022-07-31T18:55:28+00:00","ISACCSIBLEFORFREE":TE,"THOR":[{"@TYPE":"PERSON","NAME":"RICHARD CHEVERTON","URL":","SCRIPTN":"THIS TOWN NEEDS MORE VOIC, LS SGG THE CHOIR. MORE ARGUMENT, LS NFORMY. WE'LL BE GMPY, DISRPECTFUL OF THORY, QUTN THE BELIEFS DU WE WON'T BE BANNED. ","INTIFIER":"ER:852343","IMAGE":{"@TYPE":"IMAGEOBJECT","NTENTURL":","THUMBNAILURL":"}}],"PUBLISHER":{"@TYPE":"ORGANIZATN","NAME":"PORTLAND DISSENT","URL":","SCRIPTN":"LET'S SAVE A GREAT AMERIN CY. ","TERACTNSTATISTIC":{"@TYPE":"INTERACTNCOUNTER","NAME":"SUBSCRIBERS","TERACTNTYPE":","ERINTERACTNCOUNT":100},"INTIFIER":"PUB:491612","LOGO":{"@TYPE":"IMAGEOBJECT","URL":","NTENTURL":","THUMBNAILURL":"},"IMAGE":{"@TYPE":"IMAGEOBJECT","URL":","NTENTURL":","THUMBNAILURL":"}}}SHARE THIS POSTIS 'GAY' A BAD WORD?COPY LKFACEBOOKEMAILNOTOTHERIS 'GAY' A BAD WORD?
• WHAT WORDS CAN I SAY TO DECLARE THAT I’M GAY?

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

There is a nversatn that needs to be started about the word “gay, ” and why you don’t need to ver the kiddi’ ears once you start a child, I grew up thkg that “gay” was a bad word.

When I was six, I was nvced that my Male book was sudnly appropriate bee ntaed the word “gay” you, I had no ia what the word gay meant. So image my surprise when I showed my book to my father and he reassured me that “gay” actually means “happy” is a funny story, nsirg that today I intify myself as a lbian.

I, like so many others, grew up beg ndned to thk that homosexualy — or any sexualy bis straight — was a Horrible Sndalo Thg.

"THAT'S SO GAY" IS JT SO WRONG

Most importantly, no one sat children down to expla what “gay” or “homosexualy” is.

Consequently, kids nclud om their environment that homosexualy was perverse, and that the word self n be ed as an you or people you know have the impulse to sudnly lower your voic around kids when you start discsg homosexualy? If children heard the discsns, or were exposed to any fashn, they would bee “affected, ” as if homosexualy were a disease you ught by simply hearg about or seeg (which is obvly not the se nsirg LGBT folk still exist this heternormative world) thg is, you don’t have to make the nversatn sexual to start a discsn wh your child about acceptance and love.

THE 'GAY' WORD: WHAT DO MEAN WHEN YOUNG PEOPLE E NEGATIVELY?

And yet growg up, there was virtually no gay reprentatn for children of my generatn to view and intify wh. Ruby (left) and Sapphire (right) om the h rtoon Steven Universe by Rebec Sugar more recently, Beth David and Esteban Bravo (who both intify as homosexual) om the Rglg College of Art + Dign have created the animated short “In a Heartbeat, ” which has bee a great h among dienc. Society lov to hypersexualize any display of homosexualy, claimg that LGBT people are bbg their fac.

Are we gay people?

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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.

Acrdg to the ter, “queer” first beme an antigay slur durg the trials of Osr Wil. 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.

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

“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.

People wh inti outsi “gay, straight, or bi” feel reprented by “queer.