Free Gay moviesFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaThis article is about the word "gay" as a term. For broader information see homosexuality. For other uses see Gay (disambiguation).LGBT and Queer studies series LGBT Portal Gay is an adjective that usually refers to homosexuality in contemporary colloquial usage. In earlier and in literary usage, the word means "carefree", "happy", or "bright and showy". From the 1890s, it had begun to carry a connotation of promiscuity, as in a "gay house" referring to a brothel. It began to be used in reference to homosexuality in particular from the early 20th century, from the 1920s at the latest. The word "gay" is sometimes used to refer to same-sex relationships more generally, as in "gay marriage", although this usage is discouraged by some LGBT supporters: the rationale is that this usage is exclusive of not only bisexual and transgender people but also lesbians who generally reject labels of being a subset of men, even gay men. While gay applies in some contexts to all homosexual people, the term lesbian is sex-specific: it is used exclusively to describe gay women. Sometimes gay is used to refer only to men. In contemporary culture, the word 'gay' also has pejorative non-sexualized usage (especially among younger generations) to mean 'rubbish'; for something not considered good [1]. The use of the term in this manner is contentious [2].Contents [hide] History EtymologySexual orientation Asexuality . Autosexuality . Bisexuality . Heterosexuality . Homosexuality . Pansexuality . Paraphilia . Pomosexual . Zoosexuality Gay . Lesbian . Queer . Questioning Kinsey scale . Klein Grid Biology . Demographics . Medicine Homosexuality in animals Intersex . Transgender . Transsexual The primary meaning of the word gay has changed dramatically during the 20th century-though the change evolved from earlier usages. It derives via the Old French gai, probably from a Germanic source.[3] The word originally meant "carefree", "happy", or "bright and showy" and was very commonly used with this meaning in speech and literature. For example, the title of the 1938 ballet aptly named Gaîté Parisienne ("Parisian Gaiety"), a patchwork compiled from Jacques Offenbach's operettas, illustrates this connotation, and the optimistic 1890s are still often referred to as the Gay Nineties. The derived abstract noun gaiety remains largely free of connotations of sexuality. "Gaiety" was also a common name for places of entertainment. One of Oscar Wilde's favourite venues in Dublin was the Gaiety Theatre. Sexualization The word started to acquire sexual connotations in the late 17th century, being used with meaning "addicted to pleasures and dissipations". This was by extension from the primary meaning of "carefree": implying "uninhibited by moral constraints". By the late nineteenth century the term "gay life" was a well-established euphemism for prostitution and other forms of extramarital sexual behavior that were perceived as immoral. 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. It was initially more commonly used to imply heterosexually unconstrained lifestyles, as for example in the once-common phrase "gay Lothario",[4] or in the title of the book and film The Gay Falcon (1941), which concerns a womanizing detective whose first name is "Gay". Look up gay in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Well into the mid 20th century a middle-aged bachelor could be described as "gay" 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 freewheeling 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, 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. " -Gertrude Stein, 1922 The 1929 musical Bitter Sweet by Noel Coward contains another use of the word in a context that strongly implies homosexuality. In the song "Green Carnation", four overdressed, 1890s dandies sing |
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