Gay is a bad word
by Jordan Redman
Staff Writer
Do you realize what the synonyms gay really means?
The word gay dates back to the 12th century and comes from the Old French “gai,” meaning “full of joy or mirth.” It may also relate to the Old High German “gahi,” meaning impulsive.
For centuries, gay was used commonly in speech and literature to mean content, carefree, bright and showy, and did not take on any sexual interpretation until the 1600s.
At that time the meaning of queer as carefree evolved to imply that a person was unrestrained by morals and prone to decadence and promiscuity. A prostitute might have been described as a “gay woman” and a womanizer as a “gay man.”
“Gay house” was commonly used to refer to a brothel and, later, “gaiety” was used as a common name for certain places of entertainment.
In the 1890s, the term “gey cat” (a Scottish variant of gay) was used to describe a vagrant who offered sexual services to women or a new traveler who was new to the road and in the company of an older man.
This latter use suggests that the younger man was in a sexually obedient role and may be among the first times that gay was used implying a lesbian relationship.
In 1951, homosexual appeared in the
Crawling Out of the Classroom
We have arrive a really extended way in this world. I often hear teachers celebration themselves on stopping students in their classroom from saying, “That’s so gay!” as an insult. It was not all that many years ago when this was a commonly used expression, when teachers themselves could often be heard using this phrase, and it would be difficult to find any teachers who would even think to stand up and stop kids from using it.
And that is something to celebrate.
But I am writing this publish to let those who read this know that I do not think that it is enough.
I do not believe that it is enough anymore to tell kids not to exploit the word queer as an insult because what has started to transpire is that kids have started to believe that it is not okay to use the word gay. Ever. Kids have started to believe that saying the pos gay, in any context, is a reason for them to get into trouble at college. And the issue with that is, if you ponder of the other kinds of words that kids will get in to trouble for saying at school, they are all words associated with negative things. Bad words. Swear words. These are words that will get you into trouble. And now, ma
It'satypical Tuesday night. I just got back from the gym after a
long day at work. The first thing I act is grab a glass of wine and
the remote and zone out of the busy world that I just locked outside
the door of my apartment. After tuning into The Rachel Maddow Show, I
flip over to something less informed as I wind down my day. What is
on, but Mean Girls... classic! You really can't go wrong with a film
you've seen a thousand times; with nothing recent to ream from it, it's
great way to tune out before falling asleep. Or so I thought.
Now, I'll preface this by saying that I just spent the past four years
living in a residence full of 35 robust, smart, progressive, feminist,
liberal, and mostly gay women. Mean Girls was the go-to flick,
especially when the L-word became all-too-familiar to just pop in.
So, when I saw that the production starring a Lindsey Lohan just on the
brink of her own self-destruction was on cable yet again, I felt a
warm meaning of belonging and familiarity, and knew I had to watch at
least the first ten minutes.
Within those opening scenes, I noticed something I'd never noticed the
last 80 times I'd viewed the film in the past: television censorship.
Last
No, Sometimes, and Yes. For many people (especially those who are younger, or in more urban areas) queer is a synonyms of pride and the top way to “umbrella” diverse sexualities and genders. For some, lgbtq+ is considered a “bad word” (i.e., a slur) in some contexts, and okay in others (e.g., who is saying it, how they’re saying it); or was a slur, but now they’re comfy with it. And for others, it’s still a slur, and they wouldn’t use it, or want it used to describe them.
We apply “queer” in an affirming way on the site and in our trainings, and see it as a great umbrella term to refer to all diverse sexualities and genders. Here’s how we characterize it in our vocabulary:
Queer – (adj) used as an umbrella term to describe individuals who don’t identify as straight. Also used to describe people who have non-normative gender identity or as a political affiliation. Due to its historical use as a derogatory term, it is not embraced or used by all members of the LGBTQ community. The term queer can often be use interchangeably with LGBTQ.
If you’re unsure if you should use it, or when you should/shouldn’t,