Gay

For other uses, see Gay (disambiguation).

Although the word gay originally meant "happy", in modern usage the term is often synonymous with "homosexual".

However, there are important differences between the terms: while "homosexual" relates specifically to sexuality, the term "gay" is often a political or social marker. On the other hand, the personalities and preferences of people who consider themselves gay vary widely, so tying the word to a specific cultural meaning might misrespresent some of those people.

As with all words frought with varying, often contradictory connotations, "gay" is difficult to precisely define.

Common Usage

When people say they are gay, they are saying that they are open about their attraction to people of the same gender, not necessarily that they are sexually active with someone of the same gender, or with anyone at all for that matter. A person can be homosexual, but not be gay - terms such as closeted, on the down low, discreet, or bi-curious may apply in this situation. Similarly, a person can be gay, but not actively homosexual - such is the case for some celibate individuals, such as monks, or for young people who have come out of the closet as gay for political reasons but are not yet ready to form a sexual relationship.

The term "gay", or "lesbian" for women, is preferred over "homosexual" by many Lesbians, Gay men, Bisexuals, and Transgendered people (LGBT) because it describes the overall "orientation" of the person and does not focus on sexual or physical terms (though there are possibly genetic and biologic precursors to manifestations of sexuality and gender).

The Gay Community and the World at Large

The LGBT community represents the emotional, cultural, social and erotic lives of its members. Although there is wide cultural variation within the community, social cohesion exists, for several reasons. For example, many LGBT people have been through similar experiences. The community has also served as a refuge from homophobia, though this role is decreasing (at least in parts of the developed world) as society becomes more comfortable with LGBTs.

Aside from their romantic and erotic relationships, gay and lesbian people establish same-sex friendships. They may choose to attend LGBT-friendly social gatherings and church services where they feel more welcome.

However, many heterosexuals treat members of the LGBT community with kindness. Gay friendly is a term for predominantly straight individuals and institutions who support political rights and social dignity for gay people.

The gay and lesbian community represents a social component of the global community that is underrepresented in the area of civil rights. The current struggle of the gay community has been largely brought about by globalization. In the United States, World War II brought together many closeted rural men from around the nation and exposed them to sophisticated attitudes in Europe. Upon returning home after the war, many of these men decided to band together in cities rather than return to their small towns. Fledgling communities would soon become political in the beginning of the gay rights movement. Today, many large cities have gay and lesbian community centers. The Human Rights Campaign advocates for LGBT people on a wide range of issues in the United States. There is an International Lesbian and Gay Association.

In parts of the World today, the LGBT community seeks marriage rights, a further extension of social globalization. Marriage becomes hugely important when lovers are not from the same country. Without marriage, or an equivalent right to immigrate, a couple or occasionally even family can be broken up based solely on the genders of the people involved.

The modern gay and lesbian community has a growing and complex place in the American media. The community has been targeted by marketers who view LGBT people as an untapped source of discretionary income, but gays and lesbians are still often portrayed negatively in television, films, and other media. In 1994, when Ellen DeGeneres came out of the closet on her popular sitcom, many sponsors, such as the Wendy's fast food chain, pulled their advertising. Gay people are frequently used as a symptom (or symbol) of social decadence by celebrity reverends and by organizations such as Focus on the Family. Many LGBT organizations exist to represent and defend the gay community. For example, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation works with the media to help portray fair and accurate images of the gay community.

Word origins

Sometimes, specifically extracted histories of word origins are incomplete and not useful to communicating modern meanings of socioculturally potent words. Furthermore, the usage of any word changes dramatically as the culture in which it is embedded changes.

The word gay has had a sexual orientation meaning since at least the nineteenth century, and possibly earlier.

A quote from Gertrude Stein's Miss Furr & Mrs. Skeene (1922) is possibly the first traceable use of the word, though it is not altogether clear whether she uses the word to mean lesbianism or happiness:

They were ...gay, they learned little things that are things in being gay, ... they were quite regularly gay.

Noel Coward's 1929 musical Bitter Sweet has the first uncontested use of the word: in the song "Green Carnation", four overdressed, 1890s dandies sing:

Pretty boys, witty boys, You may sneer

At our disintegration.

Haughty boys, naughty boys,

Dear, dear, dear!

Swooning with affectation...

And as we are the reason

For the "Nineties" being gay,

We all wear a green carnation.

Coward uses the "gay nineties" as a double entendre. The song title alludes to the gay playwright Oscar Wilde, who famously wore a green carnation himself.

Gay originally was used purely as an adjective ("he is a gay man" or "he is gay"). Gay is now also used as a plural collective-like noun: "Gays are opposed to that policy" but rarely as a singular noun "he is a gay."

By 1963, the word was known well enough by the straight community to be used by Albert Ellis in his book The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Man-Hunting.

Folk Etymologies

It has been claimed that "gay" was derived as an acronym for "Good As You", but this is a backronym (based on a fake etymology).

Another folk etymology accrues to Gay Street, a small street in New York's West Village—a nexus of homosexual culture. The term also seems, from documentary evidence, to have existed in New York as a code word in the 1940s, where the question, "Are you gay?" would denote more than it might have seemed to outsiders.

Terminology

Gay can be used exclusively or inclusively. The exclusive meaning refers only to male homosexuals. The inclusive meaning refers at a minimum to homosexual men and lesbians, and arguably to bisexuals, and, when used in the phrase the Gay community it may include transgendered and transsexuals, and possibly intersexuals as well, though this is also a subject of some debate. See also: LGBT and queer

"Gay" as a Perjorative

When used with a derisive attitude (e.g. "that hat is so gay"), the term "gay" is purely pejorative and can be deeply offensive. The derogatory implication is that the object (or person) in question is inferior, weak, effeminate, or stupid.

This usage has its origins in the 1990s, when homosexuality was widely known about but still taboo. Today, the usage is common among young people, who may or may not link the term to homosexuality, much as some people may not intentionally link the term "Jew down" (to be talked down in price) to Jewish people, or "I was gypped" (I was cheated) to Gypsies.

Other spellings, "ghey" and "ghei", are sometimes found on the Internet and are supposedly used either to insult without reference to homosexuality or to bypass chat room censors. See also: fag.

Though the vast majority of gay people are opposed to use of the perjorative "gay", there may be some who identify as homosexual but see "gay" as a generic perjorative unassociated with sexuality. Nevertheless, using "gay" as a perjorative is a vulgarism, and is offensive to most politically aware people.

Use of "Homosexual"

According to the Safe Schools Coalition of Washington's Glossary for School Employees:

"Homosexual: Avoid this term; it is clinical, distancing and archaic. Sometimes appropriate in referring to behavior (although same-sex is the preferred adj.). When referring to people, as opposed to behavior, homosexual is considered derogatory and the terms gay and lesbian are preferred, at least in the Northwest."

However, some same-sex oriented persons actually prefer the term homosexual to gay, seeing the former as describing a sexual orientation and the latter as describing a cultural or socio-political group with which they do not identify ¹.

"Sexual Orientation" vs. "Sexual Preference"

The term "sexual orientation" is now widely considered superior to "sexual preference", because the word "preference" implies that attraction to members of the same sex is a choice, an assertion many LGBT people consider false.

See also

• List of gay-related topics
• Queer
• lesbian
• homosexuality
• bisexuality
• coming out
• gay rights
• civil rights
• ex-gay
• Redwolf24
• [[User:NickBush24|NickBush24
• Essjay

External links

• About Gay Movies Everything you always wanted to know about gay themed movies & tv-series.
• Scientific Gay Scientific Eye for the Queer Guy
• GayCrawler.com Directory of gay and lesbian websites.
• Gay Health
• The World History of Male Love
• 365 Gay The daily gay newspaper online
• Good As You - GLSBT activism using humor and irreverence rather than anger and protests