Let’s be clear: the “Don’t Say Gay” bill will do real and lastg harm, wre Am Paley and Joe Snrs.
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LET’S SAY GAY
* opinion piece gay *
AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTPamela Bons /Visum, via RxLast month, the new print of the advocy group Human Rights Campaign, Kelley Robson, posted a six-and-a-half-mute vio to troduce herself and ame the missn of her anizatn, which was found 40 years ago by the gay activist Steve Enan to help fund polil mpaigns for pro-gay-rights ndidat. ”Not once, however, did she say the word “gay” or “lbian” or “bisexual. The word “gay” is creasgly beg substuted by “queer” or, more broadly, “L.
The word “queer” is climbg equency and n be ed terchangeably wh “gay, ” which self not so long ago replaced the dour and fatly judgy “homosexual.
FLORIDA’S ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ BILL IS CEL AND DANGERO
In the same perds, e of “gay” has fallen om 2, 228 to 1, 531 — still more monly ed, but the directn of the evolutn is impossible to miss. ’ media, treat the word ‘lbian’ like ’s the plague, ” noted Julia Diana Robertson the lbian publitn The Velvet ’s be clear: Many lbians and gay people are fe wh this shift. For one thg, “gay” and “queer” are not synonymo, as they are creasgly treated, particularly among Gen Zers and lennials.
Q., ” which sometim clus addnal symbols and letters, reprents so many inti unrelated to sexual orientatn that gays and lbians n feel crowd week on “CBS News Sunday Morng, ” the wrer David Sedaris said he was done “fightg the word ‘queer.
“Gay” has a clear, specific meang that appli to both men and women: “homosexual, ” which is the first entry most dictnari. ” Another fn refers not only to gay people but also to “a person whose sexual orientatn or genr inty falls outsi the heterosexual mastream or the genr bary, ” acrdg to That uld mean “transgenr, ” “genr ntral, ” “nonbary, ” “agenr, ” “pangenr, ” “genrqueer, ” “misexual, ” “asexual, ” “two spir, ” “third genr” or all, none or some batn of the above. Queer theory is about liberately breakg down normative tegori around genr and sex, particularly bary on like men and women, straight and gay.
AS A GAY MAN, I’LL NEVER BE NORMAL
Sayg you’re queer uld mean you’re gay; uld mean you’re straight; uld mean you’re uncid about your genr or that you prefer not to say. Sayg you’re queer uld mean as ltle as havg kissed another girl your sophomore year at llege.
It uld mean you valiantly plowed through the prose of Judh Butler a urse on queerns the Elizabethan the broad spectm of possibily, ’s no surprise that many people — gay or straight — have no ia what means when someone self-intifi as this is important: Not all gay people see themselv as queer. Many lbian and gay people fe themselv terms of sexual orientatn, not genr.