Why Are People Gay? Gay By Choice or Is Beg Gay Geic? | HealthyPlace

Contents:

• ABOUT THE CENTERSCE 1983 THE CENTER HAS BEEN SUPPORTG, FOSTERG AND CELEBRATG THE LGBT MUNY OF NEW YORK CY. FD MORE RMATN ON AND OUR WORK ABOUT THE CENTER. VIS ABOUT THE CENTEROUR MISSNCYBER CENTERCENTER HISTORYRACE EQUYMEDIA CENTERLEARSHIP & STAFFEMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNICORPORATE PARTNERSHIPSANNUAL REPORTS & FANCIAL INFORMATNCONTACT USHOURS & LOTNSEMAPSUPPORT THE CENTER
• BEG GAY FOR SOMEONE
• WHAT DO IT MEAN TO BE A GAY MAN?
• HOW TO KNOW IF YOU ARE GAY
• WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?
• GAY FOR
• AM I GAY?
• WHAT DO "GAY" MEAN?
• GAY

ABOUT THE CENTERSCE 1983 THE CENTER HAS BEEN SUPPORTG, FOSTERG AND CELEBRATG THE LGBT MUNY OF NEW YORK CY. FD MORE RMATN ON AND OUR WORK ABOUT THE CENTER. VIS ABOUT THE CENTEROUR MISSNCYBER CENTERCENTER HISTORYRACE EQUYMEDIA CENTERLEARSHIP & STAFFEMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNICORPORATE PARTNERSHIPSANNUAL REPORTS & FANCIAL INFORMATNCONTACT USHOURS & LOTNSEMAPSUPPORT THE CENTER

The term "gay" may be nfg and even foreign to some, forcg people to ask, "What is gay?" or "Am I Gay?" And while some might thk the fn of "gay" is simple, to many, actually isn't.

While "gay" n be thought of as a synonym to "homosexual," there is more to the meang of gay than that.

Homosexualy is nsired to be same-sex sexual attractn and behavr and "gay" is a synonym of homosexualy. The term "homosexualy"1 was first ed by Victorian scientists who nsired same-sex sexual attractn and behavr a "moral ficiency."2.

BEG GAY FOR SOMEONE

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. The term "gay" was ially a slang term veloped to overe some of the negative associatns.

WHAT DO IT MEAN TO BE A GAY MAN?

Gay is a term that is not genr specific so men or women n be termed "gay." When intifyg people as gay though, 's important to nsir three thgs. 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." Moreover, is not unmon for people to intify as "gay" at some tim their liv, while straight (not gay) at other tim. In other words, rrectly intifyg someone as "gay" is as often a personal choice as much as is a textbook fn.

People who are homosexual uld refer to themselv as gay, lbian, LGBTQ, queer, or a number of other terms.

HOW TO KNOW IF YOU ARE GAY

Many people who are gay velop feelgs for people of the same sex their teenage years. There are many different synonyms for “homosexualy, ” as the term self is most mon synonym is “gay” or “lbian. ” Gay ually means a man beg attracted to another man, while lbian means a woman is attracted to another woman.

“LGBTQ” is an acronym that stands for lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, queer, and qutng.

Unfortunately, there is a lot of homophobia the Uned Stat and around the world. People who are anti-gay have spread several harmful myths monizg homosexualy. Among them clu:Myth 1: LGBTQ Members Make Bad ParentsMany people who are gay have lovg fai and raise happy, succsful children.

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

Myth 2: Beg Gay Is a Choice and Can Be FixedBeg gay is not a choice, or somethg that n be changed.

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. Sexual orientatn refers to the endurg physil, romantic and/or emotnal attractn to members of the same and/or other genrs, cludg lbian, gay, bisexual and straight orientatns.

GAY FOR

As GLAAD not, "Transgenr people may be straight, lbian, gay, bisexual or queer.

A person who transns om female to male and is attracted solely to men would typilly intify as a gay man." Intersex is an umbrella term ed to scribe people wh differenc reproductive anatomy, chromosom or hormon that don't f typil fns of male and female. So many gay men grow up believg there is somethg “wrong” wh bee we are different om other supposedly “normal” mal. It’s not surprisg that a term like “straight-actg” shows up so often gay men’s onle personal ads.

It prumably means the advertiser nsirs himself a “real” man—real, that is, acrdg to a standard of masculy he don’t attribute to other gay men.

AM I GAY?

So many gay men learn we are different om other boys by havg the fact poted out and ridiculed by bulli durg our young, most imprsnable, years.

As every gay man knows who has been sulted or asslted for his actual or perceived sexual orientatn, there are steep penalti for vlatg the Boy Co as there are for anyone who is “different” om the prumed (typilly whe, heterosexual, middle-class) standard. How do a gay kid survive the trma he suffers for beg different a culture that still nmns his difference as somethg bad or “ls-than” and wants to mold him to the same shape tri to mold every boy? Robert Pollack says the most important thg a fay n do to support their gay son is to keep lovg him, “to nvey to him, as soon as he shar his feelgs, that he is still loved through and through, that his sexual orientatn will not any way dimish how much he is admired and rpected.

He needs to know that ’s okay not only to be gay if that's what he is, but to be a man who choos what beg a man means for himself. Fortunately there is a long history of gay men who bucked the accepted fns of masculy and created liv that exprsed their unrstandg of themselv and how they choose to exprs their inty as men who don’t necsarily f tradnal molds.

WHAT DO "GAY" MEAN?

The late Harry Hay often lled "the father of the morn gay movement, " found the Mattache Society Los Angel the fall of 1950 for gay men to gather and ponr the qutns Hay had long been askg: Who are gay people? Hay didn’t tend the Mattach to be a polil anizatn per se, but a group that would e together to enhance their self-unrstandg and explore the ntributns gay people had ma to the human race through the ag. In a 1987 say tled “A Separate People Whose Time Has Come, ” Hay scribed homosexuals as “spir people, ” who, throughout the ag, had served society their rol as “msengers and tercers, shamans of both genrs, prits and prits, imagemakers and prophets, mim and rhapsos, poets and playwrights, healers and nurturers, teachers and preachers, tkers and tkerers, searchers and rearchers.

Hay believed that gay people had somethg special to teach nongay people about human life, and for that reason should be nurtured, rather than reviled, by society. He postulated that “gay people reprent a geic mutatn of nscns whose active fosterg is now required for human survival. Hay believed that gay men are different om heterosexuals and that those differenc go much eper than mere sexual attractn to other men.

He said gay men look at the world differently, are uniquely nonaggrsive, nonpetive, oriented toward sharg and cled to velop what Hay lled “subject-subject” love relatnships of equals. In a 1990 terview for the Washgton Bla, Harry Hay told me our llg as gay men “is not only to accept our uniquens, but to affirm , make joyo.

GAY

For gay men, learng to accept our “different” sexual orientatn as a posive aspect of ourselv is only part of our “g out.

? SummaryIn the ntext of LGBTQ+ inty, the word gay is typilly ed reference to a person who is sexually and/or romantilly attracted to people of their own sex or genr.