Gay
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gay traditionally means 'happy,' but in English it also means homosexual. This meaning is more common now. The word gay refers to a person who is sexually interested in people of the same sex. It can apply to both men and women, but a more common word for a gay woman is a lesbian.
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Gay in LGBT
LGBT is an acronym that stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender. Together these people make up a community – a group of people who work together. In this case it is also people who suffer the same kinds of discrimination.
Sometimes the LGBT community is also called the gay community. 'Lesbian community' would only refer to women who prefer women as partners. But gay community could mean either men who prefer men as partners or the whole LGBT community.
Gay can be used in the plural (Gays) to mean the gay male community or even the whole LGBT community.
Gay versus homosexual
Many gay people prefer the term 'gay' to 'homosexual'. The word homosexual means someone who is attracted to people of the same gender. But the focus of the word homosexual is on sex. The word gay talks about the whole person, not just what kind of sex partners he has.
People in the LGBT community usually use the term gay. However people who speak English are more likely to use the word 'homosexual.' Homophobic literally means people who are afraid of homosexuals. Some homophobic people may fear LGBT people. But usually they hate instead of fear.
Gay and straight
Just as gay means homosexual, straight is sometimes used as slang for heterosexual. People who prefer partners of the opposite sex usually call themselves straight instead of saying they are heterosexual.
Some people who are straight but support LGBT people say they are 'straight but not narrow.' That is a pun (or play on words) from the English idiom: 'straight and narrow'. The 'straight and narrow' means the morally right way. However, 'narrow' can also mean not tolerating or respecting the beliefs and opinions of others. Some people who are homophobic are also very religious people. They usually believe they are 'straight and narrow' meaning morally right. But they can also be 'narrow' meaning intolerant of people who are not like them – including gays.
So when straight people say they are 'straight but not narrow' they mean they are straight (heterosexual) but not narrow (intolerant).
History of the word gay
The word gay has been used to refer to homosexuals since the 1800s. Originally it was more understood by gays themselves than by straights. So it could be a way of talking about being gay without saying you were homosexual. By the 1980s though, most people knew the alternate meaning of the word gay was homosexual.
Negative use of the word gay
Most people in the gay community use gay in a positive way. But recently in slang it is sometimes used to mean something that is weak, stupid, or less important. People sometimes say: "That is so gay!" to mean something is bad. Sometimes people also use this to mean something is very colorful or gaudy. This is because of the stereotype that gay men are very interested in fashion, clothing, and interior design; another possibility is that people are still using the word in its original sense, as the word gay originally meant "fun" or "joyful". Sometimes even gays themselves use the word this way. When they do this, they may not think the way they use "gay" means "about gay people". The word homosexual came from combining the Ancient Greek word for "same" and the Latin word for "sex".
