The term
gay was originally used, until well into
the mid-20th century, primarily to refer to feelings of being
"carefree", "happy", or "bright and showy"; it had also come to
acquire some connotations of "immorality" as early as 1637.
The term later began to be used in reference to
homosexuality, in particular, from the early
20th century, a usage that may have dated prior to the 19th
century. In modern
English,
gay has come to be used as an
adjective, and occasionally as a
noun, that refers to the
people,
practices, and
culture associated with homosexuality. By the
end of the 20th century the word
gay was recommended by
major
style guides to describe people
attracted to members of the same sex. At about the same time, a
new, pejorative use became prevalent in some parts of the world. In
the
Anglosphere, this connotation, among
younger generations of speakers, has a derisive meaning equivalent
to
rubbish or
stupid (as in "That's so gay."). In
this use the word does not mean "homosexual", so that it can be
used, for example, of an inanimate object or abstract concept of
which one disapproves, but the extent to which it still retains
connotations of homosexuality has been debated.
History
Overview
word "gay" arrived in English during the 12th century from
Old French gai, most likely deriving
ultimately from a
Germanic
source. For most of its life in English, the word's primary meaning
was "joyful", "carefree", "bright and showy", and the word was very
commonly used with this meaning in speech and literature. For
example, the
optimistic 1890s are still
often referred to as the
Gay
Nineties. The title of the 1938 French
ballet Gaîté Parisienne ("Parisian
Gaiety") also illustrates this connotation. It was apparently not
until the 20th century that the word began to be used to mean
specifically "homosexual", although it had earlier acquired sexual
connotations.
The derived abstract noun
gaiety remains largely free of sexual
connotations, although it has in the past been used in the names of
places of entertainment; for example W.B.
Yeats heard Oscar
Wilde lecture at the Gaiety Theatre
in Dublin.
Sexualization
The word had started to acquire associations of immorality by 1637
and was used in the late 17th century with the meaning "addicted to
pleasures and dissipations." This was by extension from the primary
meaning of "carefree": implying "uninhibited by moral constraints."
A
gay woman was a
prostitute, a
gay man a womanizer and a
gay house a
brothel.
The use of
gay to mean "homosexual" was in origin merely
an extension of the word's sexualised connotation of "carefree and
uninhibited", which implied a willingness to disregard conventional
or respectable sexual mores. Such usage is documented as early as
the 1920s, and there is evidence for it before the 20th century,
although it was initially more commonly used to imply
heterosexually unconstrained lifestyles, as in the once-common
phrase "gay Lothario", or in the title of the book and film
The Gay
Falcon (1941), which concerns a womanizing detective whose
first name is "Gay." Well into the mid 20th century a middle-aged
bachelor could be described as "gay", indicating that he was
unattached and therefore free, without any implication of
homosexuality. This usage could apply to women too. The British
comic strip
Jane was
first published in the 1930s and described the adventures of
Jane Gay. Far from implying homosexuality, it referred to
her free-wheeling lifestyle with plenty of boyfriends (while also
punning on
Lady Jane Grey).
A passage from
Gertrude Stein's
Miss Furr & Miss Skeene (1922) is possibly the first
traceable published use of the word to refer to a homosexual
relationship. According to Linda Wagner-Martin (
Favored
Strangers: Gertrude Stein and her Family (1995)) the portrait,
"featured the sly repetition of the word gay, used with sexual
intent for one of the first times in linguistic history," and
Edmund Wilson (1951, quoted by James
Mellow in
Charmed Circle (1974)) agreed. For
example:
The 1929 musical
Bitter Sweet by
Noël Coward contains another use of the
word in a context that strongly implies homosexuality. In the song
"Green Carnation", four overdressed, 1890s
dandies sing:
The song title alludes to
Oscar Wilde,
who famously wore a
green carnation, and whose homosexuality was well known.
However, the phrase "gay nineties" was already well-established as
an epithet for the decade (a film entitled
The Gay Nineties;
or, The Unfaithful Husband was released in the same year). The
song also drew on familiar satires on Wilde and
Aestheticism dating back to
Gilbert and Sullivan's
Patience (1881). Because of its
continuation of these public usages and conventions in a mainstream
musical the precise connotations of the word in this context remain
ambiguous.

Through the mid 20th century, the
term "gay" commonly referred to "carefree", as illustrated in the
Astaire and Rogers film
The Gay Divorcee.
Other usages at this date involve some of the same ambiguity as
Coward's lyrics.
Bringing Up
Baby (1938) was the first film to use the word
gay in apparent reference to homosexuality. In a scene
where
Cary Grant's clothes have been sent
to the cleaners, he must wear a lady's feathery robe. When another
character inquires about his clothes, he responds "Because I just
went gay...all of a sudden!" However, since this was a mainstream
film at a time when the use of the word to refer to homosexuality
would still be unfamiliar to most film-goers, the line can also be
interpreted to mean "I just decided to do something frivolous."
There is much debate about what Grant meant with the ad-lib (the
line was not in the script).The word continued to be used with the
dominant meaning of "carefree", as evidenced by the title of
The Gay Divorcee (1934), a
musical film about a heterosexual couple. It was originally to be
called
"The Gay Divorce" after
the play on which it was based, but the
Hays Office determined that while a divorcee
may be gay, it would be unseemly to allow a divorce to appear
so.
Shift to "homosexual"
By the mid-20th century, "gay" was well-established as an antonym
for "straight" (which had connotations of respectability), and to
refer to the lifestyles of unmarried and/or unattached people.
Other connotations of frivolousness and showiness in dress ("gay
attire") led to association with
camp
and
effeminacy. This association no doubt
helped the gradual narrowing in scope of the term towards its
current dominant meaning, which was at first confined to
subcultures.
Gay was the preferred term since other terms,
such as "
queer", were felt to be derogatory.
"
Homosexual" is perceived as excessively
clinical, since the sexual orientation now commonly referred to as
"homosexuality" was at that time a mental illness diagnosis in the
Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).
In mid-20th century Britain, where male homosexuality was illegal
until the
Sexual Offences Act
1967, to openly identify someone as homosexual was considered
very offensive and an accusation of serious criminal activity.
Additionally, none of the words describing any aspect of
homosexuality were considered suitable for polite society.
Consequently, a number of euphemisms were used to hint at suspected
homosexuality. Examples include "sporty" girls and "artistic" boys,
all with the stress deliberately on the otherwise completely
innocent adjective.
By 1963, a new sense of the word "gay" was known well enough to be
used by
Albert Ellis in his book
The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Man-Hunting. However,
later examples of the original meaning of the word being used in
popular culture include the theme song to the 1960–1966 animated TV
series
The Flintstones,
whereby viewers are assured that they'll "have a gay old time."
Similarly, the 1966
Herman's
Hermits song "
No Milk Today",
which became a Top 10 hit in the UK and a
Top
40 hit in the U.S. and included the lyric "No milk today, it
wasn't always so /
The company was gay, we'd turn night
into day." In June 1967, the headline of the review of the Beatles'
Sgt.
Pepper's
Lonely Hearts Club Band album in the British daily
newspaper
The Times stated "
The
Beatles revive hopes of progress in pop music with their gay new
LP". Also worth noting is that, as late as 1970, the first
episode of
The Mary Tyler
Moore Show has the demonstrably straight Mary Richards'
downstairs neighbour, Phyllis, breezily declaiming that Mary is, at
age 30, still "young and gay."
There is little doubt that the homosexual sense is a development of
the word's traditional meaning, as described above. It has
nevertheless been claimed that "gay" stands for "Good As You", but
there is no evidence for this: it is a
folk etymology backronym.
Homosexuality
Sexual orientation, identity, behaviour
American
Psychological Association states that
sexual orientation "describes the pattern
of sexual attraction, behavior and identity e.g. homosexual (aka
gay,
lesbian),
bisexual and
heterosexual (aka straight)." "Sexual
attraction, behavior and identity may be incongruent. For example,
sexual attraction and/or behavior may not necessarily be consistent
with identity. Some individuals may identify themselves as
homosexual or bisexual without having had any sexual experience.
Others have had homosexual experiences but do not consider
themselves to be gay, lesbian, or bisexual. Further, sexual
orientation falls along a continuum. In other words, someone does
not have to be exclusively homosexual or heterosexual, but can feel
varying degrees of both. Sexual orientation develops across a
person's lifetime-different people realize at different points in
their lives that they are heterosexual, bisexual or
homosexual."
According to Rosario, Schrimshaw, Hunter, Braun (2006), "the
development of a lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) sexual identity is
a complex and often difficult process. Unlike members of other
minority groups (e.g., ethnic and racial minorities), most LGB
individuals are not raised in a community of similar others from
whom they learn about their identity and who reinforce and support
that identity. Rather, LGB individuals are often raised in
communities that are either ignorant of or openly hostile toward
homosexuality."
The British
gay rights activist
Peter Tatchell has argued that the term
gay is merely a cultural expression which reflects the
current status of homosexuality within a given society, and
claiming that "Queer, gay, homosexual ... in the long view, they
are all just temporary identities. One day, we won't need them at
all."
If a person engages in same-sex sexual encounters but does not
self-identify as gay, terms such as '
closeted', 'discreet', or '
bi-curious' may be applied. Conversely, a person
may identify as gay without engaging in homosexual sex. Possible
choices include identifying as gay socially while choosing to be
celibate or while anticipating a first
homosexual experience. Further, a
bisexual person can also identify as "gay" but
others might consider
gay and
bisexual to be
mutually exclusive. There are some who are drawn to the same-sex,
and may not have sex, and also not identify as gay; these could
have the term '
asexual' applied, even though
an 'asexual' generally can mean no attraction, and includes
heterosexual attraction that is not sufficient to engage in sex, or
where the sex act is not desirable, even though titillation may
occur.
Terminology
Some people reject the term
homosexual as an
identity-label because they find it too clinical-sounding; they
believe it is too focused on physical acts rather than romance or
attraction, or too reminiscent of the era when homosexuality was
considered a mental illness. Conversely, some people find the term
gay to be offensive or reject it as an identity-label
because they perceive the cultural connotations to be undesirable
or because of the negative connotations of the slang usage of the
word.
Style guides, like the following from the
Associated Press, call for "gay" over
"homosexual:
Gay community
Just as the word "gay" is sometimes used as a shorthand for the
term
LGBT, so is "gay community" sometimes a
synonym for the "LGBT community." In other cases, the speaker may
be referring only to homosexual men. Some people (including many
mainstream American journalists) interpret the phrase "gay
community" to mean "the population of LGBT people."
Cultural relativity of the term
The concept of a "
gay" identity and the use of the term
"gay" itself may not be used or understood the same way in
non-Westernised cultures since modes of sexuality may differ from
those prevalent in the West.
Descriptor
The term "
gay" can also be used as an adjective to
describe things related to homosexuals or things which are part of
the said
culture. For example, while a gay bar is not itself homosexual,
using the term "
gay" as an adjective to describe the bar
indicates that the bar is either homosexually-oriented, caters
primarily to a homosexual clientèle, or is otherwise part of
homosexual culture.
Using it to describe an object, such as an item of clothing,
suggests that it is particularly flamboyant, often on the verge of
being gaudy and garish. This usage pre-dates the association of the
term with homosexuality, but has acquired different connotations
since the modern usage developed.
Using the term "
gay" as an adjective where the meaning is
akin to "related to homosexual people, culture, or homosexuality in
general" is a widely accepted use of the word. By contrast, using
"
gay" in the pejorative sense, to describe something
solely as negative, can cause offense.
Use as noun
The label "
gay" was originally used purely as an adjective
("he is a gay man" or "he is gay"). The term has been in use as a
noun with the meaning "homosexual man" since the 1970s, as in "gays
are opposed to that policy." Although some dislike this usage, it
is common particularly in the names of various organizations such
as
Parents,
Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) and
Children Of Lesbians
And Gays Everywhere (COLAGE). It is sometimes used as a
singular noun, as in "he is a gay", such as in its use to comic
effect by the
Little Britain
character Dafydd Thomas.
Generalized pejorative use
When used with a derisive attitude (e.g. "that was so gay"), the
word
gay is
pejorative. While
retaining its other meanings, it has also acquired "a widespread
current usage" amongst young people, as a general term of
disparagement. This pejorative usage has its origins in the late
1970s. Beginning in the 1980s and especially in the late 1990s, the
usage as a generic insult became common among young people.
This usage of the word has been criticized as
homophobic. A 2006
BBC ruling
by the
Board of Governors over
the use of the word in this context by
Chris Moyles on his
Radio 1 show,
"I don't want that one, it's
gay," advises "caution on its use" for this reason:
The BBC's ruling was heavily criticised by the Minister for
Childen,
Kevin Brennan, who stated in
response that "the casual use of homophobic language by mainstream
radio DJs" is:
Shortly after the Moyles incident a campaign against homophobia was
launched in Britain under the slogan "homophobia is gay", playing
on the double meaning of the word "gay" in youth culture.
Usage in other language
The
German equivalent for 'gay',
"schwul", which is etymologically derived from "schwuel" (hot,
humid), also acquired the pejorative meaning within youth
culture.
Given name
The first name
Gay is still occasionally encountered, as
is the spelling
Gaye. (795th and 1295th most common in the
United States, according to the 1990 U.S. census). It was also used
as a male first name. The first name of the popular male Irish
television presenter
Gabriel Byrne was
always abbreviated as "Gay", as in the title of his radio show
The Gay Byrne Show. It can also be used as a short form of
the female names
Gaynell and
Gaynor and as a
short form of the male names
Gaylen and
Gaylord.
The writer
Gay Talese's name is derived
from
Gaetano, his grandfather's name.
See also
Notes
- GLAAD: AP, New York Times & Washington Post
Style
- APA Style Guide: Avoiding Heterosexual Bias in
Language
- Oxford English Dictionary, entry for Gay.
- Martha E. Stone, Sept-Oct, 2002. "Who were Miss Furr and Miss Skeene?", The
Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide.
- "AIDS and Gay Catholic Priests: Implications of the
Kansas City Star Report"
- Cocks, H. A. "'Sporty' Girls and 'Artistic' Boys: Friendship,
Illicit Sex, and the British 'Companionship' Advertisement,
1913-1928", Journal of the History of Sexuality - Volume
11, Number 3, July 2002, pp. 457-482.
- The Lyrics Library - Herman's Hermits - No Milk
Today
- The Beatles revive hopes of progress in pop music
with their gay new LP
- Rationale in Support of Pending Resolution:
- Rosario, M., Schrimshaw, E., Hunter, J., & Braun, L. (2006,
February). Sexual identity development among lesbian, gay, and
bisexual youths: Consistency and change over time. Journal of Sex
Research, 43(1), 46-58. Retrieved April 4, 2009, from PsycINFO
database.
- Masculinity for boys: A guide for peer educators; Published by
UNESCO, New Delhi, Page: 102, Page: 62
- Young Liberal Democrats launch 'homophobia is gay'
campaign, Pink News, 2006
- Robert Sedlaczek, Roberta Baron: leet & leiwand. Das
Lexikon der Jugendsprache, Echomedia, 2006, ISBN
3-901761-49-7
Further reading
External links