Gay Defn & Meang - Merriam-Webster

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
• MEANG OF GAY ENGLISH
• WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?
• GAY
• LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR HEALTH

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

Some lbians may prefer to intify as gay or as gay women.

GAY. Consirg a recent survey by the Gay & Lbian Alliance Agast Defamatn (GLAAD) found that 12 percent of the populatn intifi as LGBTQIA+, 's more ccial than ever to unrstand the termology around this growg muny.

MEANG OF GAY ENGLISH

Until somewhat recently, variatns of the term "gay muny" were ed to enpass the entirety of the group that we now refer to as LGBTQIA+. Magaze, the first acronym to take shape the 1990s was "GLBT, " ed to scribe those who intified as eher gay, lbian, bisexual, or transgenr. " This notatn clus space for those intifyg as lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, queer (and some s, "qutng"), tersex, asexual (and sometim "ally"), and the "+" is for a plethora of other orientatns and inti.

Before then, the term "gay" was ed to refer to both men and women, although was more closely associated wh men. G: Gay. Before the latter half of the 19th century, the word "gay" simply referred to someone who was "reee, " "cheerful, " or "bright and showy, " acrdg to The Oxford Dictnary of Difficult Words.

Sce then, the word "gay" has fully replaced the term "homosexual, " which many found to be too clil and was riddled wh stigma.

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

Acrdg to the Universy of Illois, "gay" is still ed to scribe a number of thgs, cludg the LGBTQIA+ muny as a whole, a sgle dividual who do not intify as straight, and men who are attracted to other men a "romantic, erotic and/or emotnal sense. (And, while this should go whout sayg, the ia that intifyg as bisexual is a "way statn" om straight to gay is an accurate and hurtful stereotype. The "A" LGBTQIA+ n also refer to the term "ally, " which is ed to fe someone who "nonts heterosexism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, heterosexual, and genrstraight privilege themselv and others, " acrdg to the Universy of Illois.

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.

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?

LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR HEALTH

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.

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? Where do gay people e om?

Where have gays been throughout history? 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.