What Florida's 'Don’t Say Gay' bill actually says

Contents:

• GAY
• HERE'S WHAT FLORIDA'S 'DON'T SAY GAY' BILL WOULD DO AND WHAT WOULDN'T DO
• WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?
• WHAT DO IT MEAN TO BE GAY? DEFN AND MEANG OF GAY
• IS LLG A HOMOSEXUAL PERSON “GAY” OFFENSIVE?
• MEANG OF GAY ENGLISH
• GAY DICTNARY

GAY

Robson was an openly gay sger-songwrer who performed unr the name Jonty Dream, his iend Tenille Clarke wrote for Brish Vogue. In terviews at the time, Ileana ced both Rodrigo and his sister — along wh shiftg views her district — as fluenc on her evolutn on gay rights. In May, the Temecula Valley Unified School District’s board voted 3 to 2 to reject a new curriculum that clud discsns on the gay rights movement and mentned Harvey Milk, the first out gay man elected to public office California.

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. But Florida’s Parental Rights Edutn act — which crics have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill — has sudnly sparked a natnal war of recent weeks, lears of global rporatns, edorial boards of major newspapers and Hollywood actors have all weighed on the proposed legislatn, wh some llg “eply disturbg” and others “nonntroversial. ” Conversely, opponents say would unfairly target the LGBTQ muny — particularly gay and trans stunts — and is “pretendg to solve a problem that don’t exist.

The bill, which passed Florida’s Senate last week and the state’s Hoe of Reprentativ Febary, do, however, nta the terms “sexual orientatn” and “genr inty, ” each legal experts say that whether the bill prohibs the word “gay” self is a “distractn. ”Beyond brandg, a re argument over the bill centers around whether would prohib the “stctn” or “discsn” of sexual bill’s sponsors have emphatilly stated that the bill would not prohib stunts om talkg about their LGBTQ fai or bar classroom discsns about LGBTQ history, cludg events like the 2016 adly attack on the Pulse nightclub, a gay club Orlando. 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.

HERE'S WHAT FLORIDA'S 'DON'T SAY GAY' BILL WOULD DO AND WHAT WOULDN'T DO

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. And many feel that this word plac undue emphasis on sexual activy, or that sounds overly clil.” 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.”.

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).

Partially rponse to Stonewall, 1970, queer activists New York Cy anized a march to Central Park wh the theme “Gay Pri.” A more prehensive history of the Stonewall Rt or the Stonewall Uprisg n be found our Pri Month explaer.

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

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.

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.

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.

WHAT DO IT MEAN TO BE GAY? DEFN AND MEANG OF GAY

I know that "words change meang over time" and "everyone says so 's jt part of the vobulary now" and " meant somethg else before meant homosexual" and "herp rp ee speech rp. I also unrstand that you believe that gleang a "homosexual nnotatn" om your pejorative e of the word is jt "oversensive" and "vigilante thought policg, " which you fd obnox. Wh that md, please make the mute chang to your vobulary necsary to avoid offendg the gay people you support and/or "tolerate" and/or "don't mean to offend.

your gay iend isn't actually offend by your e of the term, and he's only keepg his mouth shut so that he don't make you feel awkward (spe the fact that you may be makg him feel awkward).

And if you philosophilly disagree wh my takg offense to the term, is beg offensive on prciple worth alienatg iends of yours who might be gay? Do you really thk 's fair that your sistence upon g a word a certa way should tmp other people's wish that you stop g that word that way bee mak them feel like sh and they al wh that om heteronormative society enough so they really don't need their so-lled "iends" to spew latently homophobic nonsense at them as well? In your se, Sir/Madam Heterosexual, you have straight privilege, which means that you don't have to swim agast the current of homophobic bullsh that greets jt about every LGBT person every day.

IS LLG A HOMOSEXUAL PERSON “GAY” OFFENSIVE?

So I gus what I'm askg you to do is take the 3 sends to acknowledge that your pejorative e of the word "gay" offends members of the LGBT muny. The term "homosexualy"1 was first ed by Victorian scientists who nsired same-sex sexual attractn and behavr a "moral ficiency. Homosexualy is still the rrect term clilly, but even though homosexualy is no longer nsired immoral, some people feel there are still negative overton to the word given s orig.

For example, a person may feel same-sex sexual attractn but not intify as "gay" whereas another person who behav sexually towards men and women may intify as "gay. 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.

MEANG OF GAY ENGLISH

"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. Among them clu:Myth 1: LGBTQ Members Make Bad ParentsMany people who are gay have lovg fai and raise happy, succsful children.

The Amerin Medil Associatn is agast therapy that is “based on the assumptn that homosexualy is a mental disorr or that the person should change their ’s important to know that there is nothg wrong wh lovg people of the same genr as you. Adjective, gay·er, gay·, relatg to, or beg a person who is sexually or romantilly attracted to people of their own sex or genr: A gay uple strolled by on the, relatg to, or beg a person who is sexually or romantilly attracted only to people of their own sex or genr: Gay and bisexual men are both discsed this, ditg, or supportg terts or issu pertag to gay people or the gay muny: He giv charable ntributns to a gay anizatn. (ed pecially of women and pecially poetry) betiful, lofty, noble, or excellent: The learned man hath got the lady gay.

Sexually unrtraed; havg loose morals: In the 1930s movie, the baron is referred to as “a gay old rogue wh an eye for the ladi. Appropriately forward or bold; overly faiar; reckls: Gee got gay at the Christmas party and sudnly swept his boss's wife onto the dance floor.

GAY DICTNARY

A person, pecially a man, who is sexually or romantilly attracted exclively to people of the same sex or of gay1First rerd 1275–1325; Middle English gai, om Old French “happy, cheerful, ” om Germanic; pare Old High German gāhi “fast, sudn”age alert For gayThe sexual orientatn meang of the word gay has bee so predomant that people hate to e the term s origal sens of “merry, lively” and “bright or showy.

After World War II, as social attus toward sexualy began to change, gay was applied openly by gay men to themselv, first as an adjective and later as a noun. It has been argued that gay the sense “awkward, stupid, or bad” is pennt of the sexual sense, and therefore not homophobic. This argument is weakened by the fact that the sexual meang has long been the domant one, and th permeat all ag of gay.