The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page. (March 2012)

It has been suggested that Straight pride be merged into this article or section. (Discuss) Proposed since March 2012.

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Gay pride, LGBT pride or simply pride is the positive stance against discrimination and violence toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people to promote their self-affirmation, increase their visibility as a social group, build community, and celebrate sexual diversity and gender variance. Pride, as opposed to shame and social stigma, is the predominant outlook that bolsters most LGBT rights movements throughout the world. What’s more, pride has lent its name to LGBT-themed organizations, institutes, foundations, book titles, periodicals and even a cable TV station and the Pride Library.

Ranging from solemn to carnivalesque, pride events are typically held during LGBT Pride Month or some other time that commemorates a turning point in a country’s LGBT history, for example Moscow Pride in May for the anniversary of Russia's 1993 decriminalization of homosexuality. Some types of pride events include LGBT pride parades and marches, rallies, commemorations, community days, dance parties, and large festivals such as Sydney Mardi Gras, which spans several weeks.

Common symbols of pride are the rainbow or pride flag, the lowercase Greek letter lambda (λ), the pink triangle and the black triangle, these latter two reclaimed from use as badges of shame in Nazi concentration camps.^[1]

Historical background[link]

Gay equality activist Barbara Gittings picketing Independence Hall in 1965

Pride precursors[link]

Annual Reminders[link]

The 1950s and 1960s in the United States was an extremely repressive legal and social period for LGBT people. In this context American homophile organizations such as the Daughters of Bilitis and the Mattachine Society coordinated some of the earliest demonstrations of the modern LGBT rights movement. These two organizations in particular carried out pickets called “Annual Reminders” to inform and remind Americans that LGBT people did not enjoy basic civil rights protections. Annual Reminders began in 1965 and took place each July 4 at Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

"Gay is Good"[link]

The anti-LGBT discourse of these times equated both male and female homosexuality with mental illness. Inspired by Stokely Carmichael's "Black is Beautiful", Gay civil rights pioneer and participant in the Annual Reminders Frank Kameny originated the slogan "Gay is Good" in 1968^[2] to counter social stigma and personal feelings of guilt and shame.

Christopher Street Liberation Day[link]

Early on the morning of Saturday, 28 June 1969, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning persons rioted following a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar at 43 Christopher Street, New York City. This riot and further protests and rioting over the following nights were the watershed moment in modern LGBT rights movement and the impetus for organizing LGBT pride marches on a much larger public scale.

On November 2, 1969, Craig Rodwell proposed the first pride march to be held in New York City by way of a resolution at the Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations (ERCHO) meeting in Philadelphia, along with his partner, Fred Sargeant, Ellen Broidy and Linda Rhodes.^[3]

"That the Annual Reminder, in order to be more relevant, reach a greater number of people, and encompass the ideas and ideals of the larger struggle in which we are engaged-that of our fundamental human rights-be moved both in time and location.
We propose that a demonstration be held annually on the last Saturday in June in New York City to commemorate the 1969 spontaneous demonstrations on Christopher Street and this demonstration be called CHRISTOPHER STREET LIBERATION DAY. No dress or age regulations shall be made for this demonstration.
We also propose that we contact Homophile organizations throughout the country and suggest that they hold parallel demonstrations on that day. We propose a nationwide show of support.^[4][5][6][7]

All attendees to the ERCHO meeting in Philadelphia voted for the march except for Mattachine Society of New York, which abstained.^[4] Members of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) attended the meeting and were seated as guests of Rodwell's group, Homophile Youth Movement in Neighborhoods (HYMN).^[8]

Meetings to organize the march began in early January at Rodwell's apartment in 350 Bleecker Street.^[9] At first there was difficulty getting some of the major New York organizations like Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) to send representatives. Rodwell and his partner Sargeant, Broidy, Michael Brown, Marty Nixon, and Foster Gunnison of Mattachine made up the core group of the CSLD Umbrella Committee (CSLDUC). For initial funding, Gunnison served as treasurer and sought donations from the national homophile organizations and sponsors, while Sargeant solicited donations via the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop customer mailing list and Nixon worked to gain financial support from GLF in his position as treasurer for that organization.^[10][11] Other mainstays of the organizing committee were Judy Miller, Jack Waluska, Steve Gerrie and Brenda Howard of GLF.^[12] Believing that more people would turn out for the march on a Sunday, and so as to mark the date of the start of the Stonewall uprising, the CSLDUC scheduled the date for the first march for Sunday, June 28, 1970.^[13] With Dick Leitsch's replacement as president of Mattachine NY by "Michael Kotis" in April, 1970, opposition to the march by Mattachine ended.^[14]

Christopher Street Liberation Day on June 28, 1970 marked the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots with an assembly on Christopher Street and the first Gay Pride march in U.S. history, covering the 51 blocks to Central Park. The march took less than half the scheduled time due to excitement, but also due to wariness about walking through the city with gay banners and signs. Although the parade permit was delivered only two hours before the start of the march, the marchers encountered little resistance from onlookers.^[16] The New York Times reported (on the front page) that the marchers took up the entire street for about 15 city blocks.^[15] Reporting by The Village Voice was positive, describing "the out-front resistance that grew out of the police raid on the Stonewall Inn one year ago".^[17]

Spread[link]

On the same weekend gay activist groups on the West Coast of the United States held a march in Los Angeles and a march and 'Gay-in' in San Francisco.^[18][19]

One day earlier, on Saturday, 27 June 1970, Chicago Gay Liberation organized a march^[20] from Washington Square Park ("Bughouse Square") to the Water Tower at the intersection of Michigan and Chicago avenues, which was the route originally planned, and then many of the participants extemporaneously marched on to the Civic Center (now Richard J. Daley) Plaza.^[21] The date was chosen because the Stonewall events began on the last Saturday of June and because organizers wanted to reach the maximum number of Michigan Avenue shoppers. Subsequent Chicago parades have been held on the last Sunday of June, coinciding with the date of many similar parades elsewhere.

The next year, Gay Pride marches took place in Boston, Dallas, Milwaukee, London, Paris, West Berlin, and Stockholm.^[17] By 1972 the participating cities included Atlanta, Buffalo, Detroit, Washington D.C., Miami, and Philadelphia, ^[22]as well as San Francisco.

Frank Kameny soon realized the pivotal change brought by the Stonewall riots. An organizer of gay activism in the 1950s, he was used to persuasion, trying to convince heterosexuals that gay people were no different than they were. When he and other people marched in front of the White House, the State Department and Independence Hall only five years earlier, their objective was to look as if they could work for the U.S. government.^[23] Ten people marched with Kameny then, and they alerted no press to their intentions. Although he was stunned by the upheaval by participants in the Annual Reminder in 1969, he later observed, "By the time of Stonewall, we had fifty to sixty gay groups in the country. A year later there was at least fifteen hundred. By two years later, to the extent that a count could be made, it was twenty-five hundred."^[24]

Similar to Kameny's regret at his own reaction to the shift in attitudes after the riots, Randy Wicker came to describe his embarrassment as "one of the greatest mistakes of his life".^[25] The image of gays retaliating against police, after so many years of allowing such treatment to go unchallenged, "stirred an unexpected spirit among many homosexuals".^[25] Kay Lahusen, who photographed the marches in 1965, stated, "Up to 1969, this movement was generally called the homosexual or homophile movement.... Many new activists consider the Stonewall uprising the birth of the gay liberation movement. Certainly it was the birth of gay pride on a massive scale."^[26]

1980s and 1990s[link]

In the 1980s there was a major cultural shift in the Stonewall Riot commemorations. The previous loosely organized, grassroots marches and parades were taken over by more organized and less radical elements of the gay community. The marches began dropping "Liberation" and "Freedom" from their names under pressure from more conservative members of the community, replacing them with the philosophy of "Gay Pride"^{[citation needed]} (in the more liberal San Francisco, the name of the gay parade and celebration was not changed from Gay Freedom Day Parade to Gay Pride Day Parade until 1994). The Greek lambda symbol and the pink triangle which had been revolutionary symbols of the Gay Liberation Movement, which is headed by were tidied up and incorporated into the Gay Pride, or Pride, movement, providing some symbolic continuity with its more radical beginnings. The pink triangle was also the inspiration for the homomonument in Amsterdam, commemorating all gay men and lesbians who have been subjected to persecution because of their homosexuality.

LGBT Pride Month[link]

In the United States the month of June was chosen to commemorate the Stonewall riots, which occurred at the end of June 1969. As a result, many pride events are held during this month to recognize the impact LGBT people have had in the world.

On four occasions, the President of the United States has officially declared a Pride Month. First, President Bill Clinton declared June "Gay & Lesbian Pride Month" on June 2, 2000.^[28] Then, in 2009^[29], 2010^[30], and 2011,^[31] President Barack Obama declared June Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month.

Opposition[link]

An editor has expressed a concern that this section lends undue weight to certain ideas, incidents, controversies or matters relative to the article subject as a whole. Please help to create a more balanced presentation. Discuss and resolve this issue before removing this message. (April 2012)

From both outside and inside the LGBT community, there is criticism and protest against pride events. Bob Christie's documentary Beyond Gay: The Politics of Pride evaluates gay pride events in different countries within the context of local opposition.

In-group[link]

In a special queer issue of The Stranger in 1999, openly gay author, pundit, and journalist Dan Savage questioned the relevance of pride thirty years later.^[32]

The growth and commercialization of Christopher Street Days, coupled with their de-politicalisation, has led to an alternative CSD in Berlin, the so-called "Kreuzberger CSD" or "Transgenialer" ("Transgenial"/Trans Ingenious") CSD. Political party members are not invited for speeches, nor can parties or companies sponsor floats. After the parade there is a festival with a stage for political speakers and entertainers. Groups discuss lesbian/transsexual/transgender/gay or queer perspectives on issues such as poverty and unemployment benefits (Hartz IV), gentrification, or "Fortress Europe."

In June 2010, American philosopher and theorist Judith Butler refused the Civil Courage Award (Zivilcouragepreis) of the Christopher Street Day Parade in Berlin, Germany at the award ceremony, arguing and lamenting in a speech that the parade had become too commercial, and was ignoring the problems of racism and the double discrimination facing homosexual or transsexual migrants. According to Butler, even the organizers themselves promote racism.^[33] The general manager of the CSD committee, Robert Kastl, countered Butler's allegations and pointed out that the organizers already awarded a counselling center for lesbians dealing with double discrimination in 2006. Regarding the allegations of commercialism Kastl explained further that the CSD organizers don't require small groups to pay a participation fee which starts at 50 € and goes up to 1500 €. He also distanced himself from all forms of racism and islamophobia.^[34]

Gay Shame, a radical movement within the LGBT community, opposes the assimilation of LGBT people into mainstream, heteronormative society, the commodification of non-heterosexual identity and culture, and in particular the (over)commercialization of pride events.

"Straight Pride" analogy[link]

"Straight Pride" and "Heterosexual Pride" are analogies and slogans that oppose heterosexuality to homosexuality by copying the phrase "Gay Pride".^[35] Originating from the Culture Wars in the United States, "Straight Pride" is a form of conservative backlash as there is no straight or heterosexual civil rights movement. While criticism from inside and outside the LGBT community abounds, the "Straight Pride" incidents have, however, gained some media attention especially when they involve government and public institutions.

Initiatives and criticism by governments and political leaders[link]

Spain[link]

In a 2008 interview for the biography book La Reina muy cerca (The Queen Up Close) by Spanish journalist and writer Pilar Urbano, Queen Sofía of Spain sparked off controversy by voicing her disapproval of LGBT pride in addition to overstepping her official duties as a member of the Royal Family by censuring the Spanish Law on Marriage in how it names equal same-sex unions “matrimonio” (marriage). Albeit without using the slogan "Strait Pride", Queen Sofía was directly quoted as saying that if heterosexuals were to take the streets as the LGBT community does for Gay Pride parades, that the former collective would bring Madrid to a standstill.^[36] Ironically, this analogy had already come true because the celebrations for the wedding of her son Felipe, Prince of Asturias to commoner Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano paralyzed the city on the morning of May 22, 2004.

Even though the Royal Household of Spain approved publication of the interview and Pilar Rubio offered to share the interview recording, both Queen Sofía and the Royal Household have refuted the comments in question.^[37]

Brazil[link]

In August 2011, Sao Paulo city alderman Carlos Apolinário of the right-wing Democrats Party sponsored a bill to organize and sponsor "Heterosexual Pride Day" on the third Sunday of December. The bill was passed by the city council, and awaits the signature of mayor Gilberto Kassab. Apolinário, an Evangelical Protestant, stated that the intent of the parade was a "struggle...against excesses and privileges". Members of Grupo Gay da Bahia and the Workers' Party criticized the bill as enhancing "the possibility of discrimination and prejudice".^[38] However, no events have ever been held.

Initiatives by groups[link]

White Aryan Resistance or Ku Klux Klan have set up "Straight Pride" events as a direct reaction to "Gay Pride" events to appeal to anomic adolescents.^[39]

In 1991, a group of conservative organisations at University of Massachusetts organised a "Straight Pride" rally, which was attended by about 50 people. However a crowd ten times the size, came to protest against the rally.^[40] In 2005, a "Straight Pride Week" was organised at University of Central Oklahoma by the College Republicans on campus.^[41]

In July 2008, group of reggae artists announced about their plans to arrange Straight Pride in New York to support some Jamaican musicians harassed by LGBT activists.^[42][43] According to LGBT rights activist Peter Tatchell, this "Straight Pride" event was "a promotion of straight supremacism".^[44]

At a 2010 Tea Party Express rally in Michigan, a vendor was selling T-shirts printed with the slogan "Straight Pride". ^[45]

According to the online version of newspaper The Budapest Report, an "Anti-Gay Pride March" was held by an unspecified and unidentified group of participants in Budapest, Hungary on September 4, 2010. Calling their protest "Heterosexual Pride", this group believes that "gays were being allowed to voice their pride in public places funded by what they called ‘respectable people’.” ^[46] Subsequently, the protest was backed by unspecified religious groups.

Incidents involving minors[link]

[edit] Chambers v. Babbitt (2001)

In 2001, Woodbury High School in St. Paul, Minnesota created homophobia-free areas called "safe zones" designated by an inverted pink triangle and intended for LGBT students.^[48] Student Elliot Chambers reacted by wearing a makeshift t-shirt with the slogan "Straight Pride" and the image of male and female stick figures holding hands.

In light of previous anti-LGBT incidents, principal Babbitt ordered Chambers to remove the shirt. A court case ensued. Judge Donovan Frank upheld Chambers' complaint that his First Amendment rights had been violated, and that the principal's decision was unjustified.^[49] Although praising Principal Babbitt's intentions, the judge explained that views of both sides of the debate should be allowed and that such issues should be resolved within the community, not within the court system.^[49]

St. Charles North High School[link]

In response to a local spate of suicides amongst LGBT adolescents, an Ally Week was held at St. Charles North High School in St. Charles, Illinois in 2010. On the first day of this Ally Week, though, three students arrived wearing "Straight Pride" t-shirts. The back of these t-shirts displayed Leviticus 20:13, a verse stating that those who perform homosexual acts should be put to death. While the school did not force the students to remove their t-shirts, it did persuade them to remove the bible quotation. The following day two different students arrived wearing "Straight Pride" t-shirts minus the bible quotations and were consequently asked to remove their shirts.^[50]

See also[link]

Christopher Street Day Europride InterPride / IALGPC

LGBT portal LGBT pride parade List of LGBT events Sexuality and gender identity-based cultures

Notes[link]

HBT rally in Carmel, Haifa, Israel

Boise Pride at at the Idaho Capitol.

External links[link]

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (August 2010)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: LGBT Pride

• 2010 Pride Parade Calendar – a large list of 2010 world pride parades with embedded YouTube videos
• List of worldwide Gay Pride events – event info and photos
• LGBT Religious Archives Network Exhibit – The Council on Religion and the Homosexual (CRH)
• Yahoo! Pride – Yahoo!'s Guide to Worldwide LGBT Pride
• Gay Pride Coast To Coast – photos by CBS News
• Gay Pride Photography – images from pride parades worldwide

References[link]

• Alwood, Edward (1996). Straight News: Gays, Lesbians, and the News Media Columbia University Press, New York. ISBN 0-231-08436-6.
• Carter, David (2004). Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked The Gay Revolution. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 031234269.
• Duberman, Martin (1993). Stonewall Dutton, New York. ISBN 0-452-27206-8.
• Loughery, John (1998). The Other Side of Silence – Men's Lives and Gay Identities: A Twentieth-Century History. New York, Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 0-8050-3896-5.
• Marotta, Toby (1981). The Politics of Homosexuality. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0-395-31338-4.
• Teal, Donn (1971). The Gay Militants. New York, Stein and Day. ISBN 0-8128-1373-1.

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Gay is a word (a noun or an adjective) that primarily refers to a homosexual person.

The term was originally used to refer to feelings of being "carefree", "happy", or "bright and showy"; it had also come to acquire some connotations of "immorality" as early as 1637.^[1] The term's use as a reference to homosexuality may date as early as the late 19th century, but its use gradually increased in the 20th century.^[1] In modern English, gay has come to be used as an adjective, and as a noun, referring to the people, especially to men, and the practices and cultures associated with homosexuality. By the end of the 20th century, the word gay was recommended by major LGBT groups and style guides to describe people attracted to members of the same sex.^[2][3] At about the same time, a new, pejorative use became prevalent in some parts of the world. In the Anglosphere, this connotation, among younger speakers, has a derisive meaning equivalent to rubbish or stupid (as in "That's so gay."). In this use, the word does not mean "homosexual", so it can be used, for example, to refer to an inanimate object or abstract concept of which one disapproves. This usage can also refer to weakness or unmanliness. When used in this way, the extent to which it still retains connotations of homosexuality has been debated and harshly criticized.^[4][5]

History[link]

Overview[link]

Cartoon from Punch magazine in 1857 illustrating the use of "gay" as a euphemism for being a prostitute. One woman says to the other (who looks glum), "How long have you been gay?" The poster on the wall is for La Traviata, an opera about a courtesan.

The word "gay" arrived in English during the 12th century from Old French gai, most likely deriving ultimately from a Germanic source.^[1] For most of its life in English, the word's primary meaning was "joyful", "carefree", "bright and showy", and the word was very commonly used with this meaning in speech and literature. For example, the optimistic 1890s are still often referred to as the Gay Nineties. The title of the 1938 French ballet Gaîté Parisienne ("Parisian Gaiety"), which became the 1941 Warner Brothers movie, The Gay Parisian,^[6] also illustrates this connotation. It was apparently not until the 20th century that the word began to be used to mean specifically "homosexual", although it had earlier acquired sexual connotations.^[1]

The derived abstract noun gaiety remains largely free of sexual connotations, and has, in the past, been used in the names of places of entertainment; for example W.B. Yeats heard Oscar Wilde lecture at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin.^[7]

Sexualization[link]

The word had started to acquire associations of immorality by 1637^[1] and was used in the late 17th century with the meaning "addicted to pleasures and dissipations."^[8] This was by extension from the primary meaning of "carefree": implying "uninhibited by moral constraints." A gay woman was a prostitute, a gay man a womanizer and a gay house a brothel.^[1]

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, and there is evidence for it before the 20th century,^[1] although it was initially more commonly used to imply heterosexually unconstrained lifestyles, as in the once-common phrase "gay Lothario",^[9] or in the title of the book and film The Gay Falcon (1941), which concerns a womanizing detective whose first name is "Gay." Well into the mid 20th century a middle-aged bachelor could be described as "gay", indicating that he was unattached and therefore free, 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 free-wheeling 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. According to Linda Wagner-Martin (Favored Strangers: Gertrude Stein and her Family (1995)) the portrait, "featured the sly repetition of the word gay, used with sexual intent for one of the first times in linguistic history," and Edmund Wilson (1951, quoted by James Mellow in Charmed Circle (1974)) agreed.^[10] For example:

They were ...gay, they learned little things that are things in being gay, ... they were quite regularly gay.

—Gertrude Stein, 1922

Other usages at this date involve some of the same ambiguity as Coward's lyrics. Bringing Up Baby (1938) was the first film to use the word gay in apparent reference to homosexuality. In a scene showing Cary Grant's clothes going to the cleaners. He is forced to wear a lady's feathery robe. When another character asks about his robe, he responds "Because I just went gay...all of a sudden!"^[11] Since this was a mainstream film at a time when the use of the word to refer to homosexuality would still be unfamiliar to most film-goers, the line can also be interpreted to mean "I just decided to do something frivolous."^{[citation needed]} There is much debate about what Grant meant with the ad-lib (the line was not in the script).^{[citation needed]} The word continued to be used with the dominant meaning of "carefree", as evidenced by the title of The Gay Divorcee (1934), a musical film about a heterosexual couple. It was originally to be called "The Gay Divorce" after the play on which it was based, but the Hays Office determined that while a divorcee may be gay, it would be unseemly to allow a divorce to appear so.

[edit] Shift to homosexual

By the mid-20th century, gay was well established in reference to hedonistic and uninhibited lifestyles^[12] and its antonym straight, which had long had connotations of seriousness, respectability, and conventionality, had now acquired specific connotations of heterosexuality.^[13] In the case of gay, other connotations of frivolousness and showiness in dress ("gay apparel") led to association with camp and effeminacy. This association no doubt helped the gradual narrowing in scope of the term towards its current dominant meaning, which was at first confined to subcultures. Gay was the preferred term since other terms, such as queer, were felt to be derogatory.^[14] Homosexual is perceived as excessively clinical,^{[15][16][17][18]} since the sexual orientation now commonly referred to as "homosexuality" was at that time a mental illness diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

In mid-20th century Britain, where male homosexuality was illegal until the Sexual Offences Act 1967, to openly identify someone as homosexual was considered very offensive and an accusation of serious criminal activity. Additionally, none of the words describing any aspect of homosexuality were considered suitable for polite society. Consequently, a number of euphemisms were used to hint at suspected homosexuality. Examples include "sporty" girls and "artistic" boys,^[19] all with the stress deliberately on the otherwise completely innocent adjective.

The sixties marked the transition in the predominant meaning of the word gay from that of "carefree" to the current "homosexual". By 1963, a new sense of the word gay was known well enough to be used by Albert Ellis in his book The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Man-Hunting. Similarly, Hubert Selby, Jr. in his 1964 novel Last Exit to Brooklyn, could write "[he] took pride in being a homosexual by feeling intellectually and esthetically superior to those (especially women) who weren't gay..."^[20] Later examples of the original meaning of the word being used in popular culture include the theme song to the 1960–1966 animated TV series The Flintstones, whereby viewers are assured that they will "have a gay old time." Similarly, the 1966 Herman's Hermits song "No Milk Today", which became a Top 10 hit in the UK and a Top 40 hit in the U.S. and included the lyric "No milk today, it was not always so / The company was gay, we had turn night into day."^[21] In June 1967, the headline of the review of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album in the British daily newspaper The Times stated, "The Beatles revive hopes of progress in pop music with their gay new LP".^[22] Yet in the same year, The Kinks recorded "David Watts".^[23] Ostensibly about schoolboy envy, the song also operated as an in-joke, as related in Jon Savage's "The Kinks: The Official Biography", because the song took its name from a homosexual promoter they'd encountered who'd had romantic designs on songwriter Ray Davies' teenage brother; and the lines "he is so gay and fancy free" attest to the ambiguity of the word's meaning at that time, with the second meaning evident only for those in the know.^[24] As late as 1970, the first episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show has the demonstrably straight Mary Richards' downstairs neighbor, Phyllis, breezily declaiming that Mary is, at age 30, still "young and gay."

There is little doubt that the homosexual sense is a development of the word's traditional meaning, as described above. It has nevertheless been claimed that gay stands for "Good As You", but there is no evidence for this: it is a folk etymology backronym.^[25]

Homosexuality[link]

The LGBT Rainbow Flag

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Sexual orientation, identity, behavior[link]

The American Psychological Association states that sexual orientation "describes the pattern of sexual attraction, behavior and identity e.g. homosexual (aka gay, lesbian), bisexual and heterosexual (aka straight)". It says, "There is no consensus among scientists about the exact reasons that an individual develops a heterosexual, bisexual, gay, or lesbian orientation. Although much research has examined the possible genetic, hormonal, developmental, social, and cultural influences on sexual orientation, no findings have emerged that permit scientists to conclude that sexual orientation is determined by any particular factor or factors. Many think that nature and nurture both play complex roles."^[26]

According to Rosario, Schrimshaw, Hunter, Braun (2006), "the development of a lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) sexual identity is a complex and often difficult process. Unlike members of other minority groups (e.g., ethnic and racial minorities), most LGB individuals are not raised in a community of similar others from whom they learn about their identity and who reinforce and support that identity. Rather, LGB individuals are often raised in communities that are either ignorant of or openly hostile toward homosexuality."^[27]

The British gay rights activist Peter Tatchell has argued that the term gay is merely a cultural expression which reflects the current status of homosexuality within a given society, and claiming that "Queer, gay, homosexual ... in the long view, they are all just temporary identities. One day, we will not need them at all."^[28]

If a person engages in same-sex sexual encounters but does not self-identify as gay, terms such as 'closeted', 'discreet', or 'bi-curious' may be applied. Conversely, a person may identify as gay without engaging in homosexual sex. Possible choices include identifying as gay socially while choosing to be celibate or while anticipating a first homosexual experience. Further, a bisexual person can also identify as "gay" but others might consider gay and bisexual to be mutually exclusive. There are some who are drawn to the same-sex, and may not have sex, and also not identify as gay; these could have the term 'asexual' applied, even though an 'asexual' generally can mean no attraction, and includes heterosexual attraction that is not sufficient to engage in sex, or where the sex act is not desirable, even though titillation may occur.

Terminology[link]

Some reject the term homosexual as an identity-label because they find it too clinical-sounding;^[16][17][18] they believe it is too focused on physical acts rather than romance or attraction, or too reminiscent of the era when homosexuality was considered a mental illness. Conversely, some reject term gay as an identity-label because they perceive the cultural connotations to be undesirable or because of the negative connotations of the slang usage of the word.

Style guides, like the following from the Associated Press, call for gay over homosexual:

Gay: Used to describe men and women attracted to the same sex, though lesbian is the more common term for women. Preferred over homosexual except in clinical contexts or references to sexual activity.^[29]

Gay community vs. LGBT community[link]

Two girls kissing

Just as the word gay is sometimes used as a shorthand for the term LGBT, so is gay community sometimes a synonym for the LGBT community. In other cases, the speaker may be referring only to homosexual men. Starting in the mid-1980s in the United States, a conscious effort was underway within what was then called the gay community, to add the term lesbian to the name of all gay organizations that catered to both male and female homosexuals, and to use the terminology of gay and lesbian, or lesbian/gay when referring to that community. So, organizations like the National Gay Task Force became the National Lesbian/Gay Task Force. For many ardent feminist lesbians, it was also important that the L come first, lest an L following a G become another symbol of male dominance over women.^[30] In the 1990s, this was followed by another equally concerted push to include the terminology specifically pointing out the inclusion of bisexuals and transgender people, reflecting an end to the intra-community debate as to whether these other sexual minorities were part of the same sexual liberation movement. Most news organizations have formally adopted this use, following the example and preference of the LGBT organizations, as reflected in their press releases and public communications. Today, many people interpret the phrase "gay community" to mean "the population of LGBT people."

Descriptor[link]

A gay bar in Seattle, United States.

The term gay can also be used as an adjective to describe things related to homosexuals or things which are part of the said culture. For example, the term "gay bar" describes the bar which is either homosexually oriented, caters primarily to a homosexual clientele, or is otherwise part of homosexual culture.

Using it to describe an object, such as an item of clothing, suggests that it is particularly flamboyant, often on the verge of being gaudy and garish. This usage predates the association of the term with homosexuality, but has acquired different connotations since the modern usage developed.

Using the term gay as an adjective where the meaning is akin to "related to homosexual people, culture, or homosexuality in general" is a widely accepted use of the word.

People who oppose homosexuality, especially homophobic ones, may use the term gay in the pejorative sense, ascribing the term negative connotations.

Use as a noun[link]

The label "gay" was originally used purely as an adjective ("he is a gay man" or "he is gay"). The term has been in use as a noun with the meaning "homosexual man" since the 1970s, as in "gays are opposed to that policy." Although some dislike this usage, it is common, such as in the case of "LGBT" ("lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender"), and particularly in the names of various organizations such as Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) and Children Of Lesbians And Gays Everywhere (COLAGE). It is sometimes used as a singular noun, as in "he is a gay", such as in its use to comic effect by the Little Britain character Dafydd Thomas.

Generalized pejorative use[link]

When used with a derisive attitude (e.g. "that was so gay"), the word gay is pejorative. While retaining its other meanings, it has also acquired "a widespread current usage" amongst young people, as a general term of disparagement.^[31][32] This pejorative usage has its origins in the late 1970s. Beginning in the 1980s and especially in the late 1990s, the usage as a generic insult became common among young people.^[32]

This usage of the word has been criticized as homophobic. A 2006 BBC ruling by the Board of Governors over the use of the word in this context by Chris Moyles on his Radio 1 show, "I do not want that one, it's gay," advises "caution on its use" for this reason:

"The word ‘gay’, in addition to being used to mean ‘homosexual’ or ‘carefree’, was often now used to mean ‘lame’ or ‘rubbish’. This is a widespread current usage of the word amongst young people... The word 'gay' ... need not be offensive... or homophobic ... The governors said, however, that Moyles was simply keeping up with developments in English usage. ... The committee... was "familiar with hearing this word in this context." The governors believed that in describing a ring tone as 'gay', the DJ was conveying that he thought it was 'rubbish', rather than 'homosexual'. ... The panel acknowledged however that this use... in a derogatory sense... could cause offence in some listeners, and counselled caution on its use.

—BBC Board of Governors, ^[31]

The BBC's ruling was heavily criticised by the Minister for Children, Kevin Brennan, who stated in response that "the casual use of homophobic language by mainstream radio DJs" is:

"too often seen as harmless banter instead of the offensive insult that it really represents. ... To ignore this problem is to collude in it. The blind eye to casual name-calling, looking the other way because it is the easy option, is simply intolerable."

—Tony Grew, ^[33]

Shortly after the Moyles incident a campaign against homophobia was launched in Britain under the slogan "homophobia is gay", playing on the double meaning of the word "gay" in youth culture.^[34]

Parallels in other languages[link]

The German equivalent for gay, schwul, which is etymologically derived from schwuel (hot, humid), also acquired the pejorative meaning within youth culture.^[35]

In the two standards of the Portuguese language (i.e. the Brazilian and European ones), gay, guei, lésbica, homossexual, bissexual, pansexual and bi-curioso/bi-curiosa are among the common acceptable terms for people, along the still widespread used slur "bicha", that as queer in English (with an ironically similar use, pejorative for effeminate men and everyone which is not heterosexual and/or cisgender, but which would also be translated to an informal term for parasitic worm), was increasingly reappropriated by the community from the mid-1990s to the mid-2010s, and there were attempts to make it with at least one other common slur, "viado" (from desviado, "male sexual deviant").^[36] Generally the community is denoted by the English terms or its more direct translations. The sexual orientations can be interchangeably called by homossexualidade/bissexualidade and homossexualismo/bissexualismo without pejorative connotations, although the latter is widely regarded as politically incorrect in Brazil since mid-2000s because of cultural influence from English-speaking countries.

As in English, there is a pejorative use of the term gay in Portuguese-speaking countries among people of all age groups (generally males), but more frequently within the youth culture, frequently translating as flashy, flamboyant, effeminate, coward or lame, acting as a term to designate everything outside the macho gender role of the Iberian and Latin American cultures and thus deemed as improper attitude or item to a male.

The Spanish language usually employ the term homosexual to describe gay people and the community, but also use the English word "gay". The Spanish pejorative slang terms for a gay male, maricón and joto, derive in the former case from the name Maria; in the latter, from associations with dances of similar names. The Spanish slang for a lesbian, manflor, appears to derive from an association with a "masculinized" flower.^[37]

The concept of a "gay identity" and the use of the term gay may not be used or understood the same way in non-Westernised cultures, since modes of sexuality may differ from those prevalent in the West.^[38]

See also[link]

LGBT portal

• Anti-LGBT slogans
• Deviance (sociology)
• Gay bashing
• Gender identity
• Gender identity disorder
• Hate speech
• Heterosexism
• Human male sexuality
• Human Rights Campaign
• Labeling theory
• LGBT rights opposition
• LGBT themes in mythology
• List of gay, lesbian or bisexual people
• National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
• Religion and sexuality
• Sexuality and gender identity-based cultures
• Stigma

Notes[link]