The word "gay".

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I hear this word dropped frequently. And a large percentage of the time it's not referring to people being attracted to the same gender. To certain people anything and anyone that is not "cool" is "gay".

Yea it's used both literally and as an insult by people.

I still use this sometimes myself. When I grew up the word mong was used all the time, then one of my cousins had a severe disability so I stopped using it. I think if I knew someone who was gay who didn't like it then i'd stop using it.

To think that "gay" was synonymous with "happy" at some point...

It's honestly an overrated word if you ask me.

There are places in England with the word gay in it like Gayton.

It's also used as a synonym for "stupid" or "lame."

I don't like that use of the word.

"Gay" originally meant "happy", and "carefree".

The last decade of the 19th Century was called "the gay Nineties", and particular city was called "Gay Paree (Paris)".

But even back in Victorian times "gay" took on subset meaning of "libertine"- like a fop or a dandy who engages in "the sporting life" that might include debauchery. Kinda the precursor to the later usage.

Then in post war America homosexuality became a thing on the popular radar screen, and then came the Sixties and Seventies when homosexuals agitated for rights. So a new word was needed for "homosexuals"- a term that was shorter than "homosexual", and not derogatory like "fag" and "queer" and all of that. So the term "gay" was appropriated.

So it went from meaning "happy" to meaning "homosexual" (or usually just "male homosexual").
And that pretty much became the accepted new word for "male homosexual" from circa 1970 to now.

Some older folks haven't even adjusted to that second life for the word "gay".

But now in the 21st century there is this third meaning for "gay" among the younger generation. Its apparently used now to mean "lame", or "uncool".

Do not understand this third manifestation of the word at all. Since I am over a certain age it doesn't even occur to me to use it this new third way anymore than it occurs to me to speak Thai.

When have reason to speak about homosexuals I usually call them "gay" or even "gays" (I am still in the late 20th century usage of the word). I don't see anything wrong with using the word that way.

My dads 1946 yearbook said, "our hearts are young and gay". He used to laugh about it.

"Gay" is a perfectly fine surname for both men and women including some quite amazing individuals such as veteran journalist and author Gay Talese.

"No milk today it wasn't always so
The company was gay we turned night into day"






"To think that only yesterday / I was cheerful, bright and gay / Looking forward to who wouldn't do / The role I was about to play."







"We'll have a gay old time."

Yeah, people would use gay in that way all the time at my Secondary school. I remember a conversation I had when I was sitting with a friend;

Friend: Lol, those balloons are so gay.

Me: How are balloons attracted to each other? It sure would be weird if balloons were sentient. Although balloons can be attached to surfaces and possibly to other balloons by means of static electricity, so I guess you could say that they can be attracted to each other, but certainly not romantically.

*Brief silence*

Friend: No, I didn't mean it in that way, I just meant they are bit bad like, you know, oh s**t I forgot you're gay sorry. Um, yeah I never really thought about it, I guess it is kind of offensive.

Me: Personally I don't mind, I just find it odd when people use that word like that.

Friend: It just becomes a habit, you hear it so much that you just end up saying it without thinking.

Then there was the time my biology teacher said gay in a mocking tone, but not as in a "this thing is uncool" kind of way.

We had him for sex ed, and this guy asked about safe-sex in homosexual relationships, so he said "Why, are you gay or something?" and laughed, then the rest of the class joined in laughing.

I wasn't out to many people, and was trying to keep up this facade at the time in order to fit in of being heartbroken about ending a fake relationship I had with a gay guy who was also closeted, so I didn't say anything.

The person who asked the question slid lower into his seat, looking down. "Haha, no, I'm not gay, haha, I was just asking because, um, you know, other people might want to know about that, and I was asking on their behalf, not because I'm gay because I'm not gay" he replied.

At the end of the lesson our teacher went on a rant about how gay sex is pointless, and how gay people should remain virgins "if they can help it", because according to him it should be an activity that happens only to procreate.

I was tempted to say "If gay sex is only pointless because it doesn't lead to procreation, then doesn't that mean that heterosexual sex where protection is used is also pointless? Since you talked about that, yet you didn't say anything about that being pointless, interestingly enough." but I didn't.

This thread is gay.

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