How did "gay", in addition to meaning merry and glad, become a term for homosexual people?
by 
wickedwillie
ANSWERS: 3
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One theory of the word GAY is that it developed as the gay community wanted to prove that they were exactly the same as the straight community, and that there was no difference between the two. So a gay man would tell a straight man that " I am as Good As You" from which we get a "G" from good, "A" from as and "Y" from you, to make G.A.Y.
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An interesting answer, but I'm sceptical. Another explanation is that at one time (possibly as late as the early 1900s) the word in addition to meaning merry also had a negative connotation and could mean "addicted to social pleasures or dissipations; or given to revelling or self indulgence". Said of a woman it could imply she was a prostitute. This use of the word may have been more common in the UK than in the US. This explanation will likely not go over very well with many gay rights activists, but given historical attitudes toward homoxexuality it seems a likely explanation. See the Oxford English Dictionary site at http://www.oed.com/bbcwordhunt/gay.html The OED is the definitive source on English language words and is always undertaking research on word origin and use. Among other things, they are looking for printed evidence of the use of the word gay to mean homosexual before 1935. If you know of such go to http://www.oed.com/bbcwordhunt/list.html
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Despite that people often claim the word 'gay' came from more innocent origins, in Victorian times the word 'gay' had a promiscuous double meaning, ie a brothel was referred to as a 'Gay House', probably because of the English tendency to debase words of French origin. A young man who dressed as woman in Victorian theatrical performances (because women were banned from acting in public) was referred to as a 'gay', possibly because sexual services were being offered on the side. Male prostitutes in the early 1900s began referring to themselves as 'gays', possibly as a polite euphemism (similar to the words 'escort' and 'masseur'). The word 'gay' was later adopted by the Gay Rights movement, probably because it was the more positive sounding than most other descriptive terms of the time.
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