gay

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

gay is a foreign word for homosexual that has been adopted from English . It is often used synonymously with gay as an adjective in German-speaking countries , because the majority perceive it to be less direct and yet not as clinical or scientific as “homosexual”. The meaning of “gay” sometimes, but not always, extends to lesbian . For example, the English term “gay women” is correct, and terms such as “ gay pride ” and “gay people” refer not only to gays but also to lesbians.

Word history

Originally and well into the 20th century , gay means in English "happy, happy". Starting from here, from the 17th century onwards it was also related to the joys of social distractions ("fun-loving, devoted to social distraction") and, in this context, increasingly associated with a lifestyle that was regarded as immoral ("dissolute, dissolute, promiscuous"). Other older meanings were "brilliant (of people and colors)", "charming" and, as an adverb, "very". Throughout the 19th century, specifically for women, it also meant “living on prostitution”. The modern meaning "homosexual" may have developed the word in the 19th century. In older written evidence this cannot always be read out clearly, so that the first clear evidence for "gay" according to the Oxford English Dictionary dates from 1935. With this meaning, the word was first used as a flirtatious , mocking or indirect description for male homosexuality.

Today, gay as a term for "gay" has a relatively neutral connotation and is now used colloquially in many languages. It is closely related to the post- Stonewall gay movement. As the word became a self-designation through this, it lost its previously ambivalent meaning. English queer and German gay have experienced a similar reinterpretation .

Use as a key term

The term " gay " has developed into a key term in an international context:

  • LGBT stands for "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender" and is now an abbreviation that is often used, especially in the Anglo-Saxon region.
  • The International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) is the global umbrella organization for lesbian, gay and transgender organizations.
  • The Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was a lesbian and gay political group that formed in response to the Stonewall uprising in June 1969.
  • The Gay Games are a sports event that takes place every four years and is specially, but not exclusively, organized for homosexuals, based on the Olympic Games .
  • The gay affirmative psychotherapy is a direction of psychotherapy that supports the homosexual orientation and development of their clients and promotes.
  • According to its own information, the GayRomeo is the largest (originally only German-speaking) chat and contact portal for gay, bisexual and transsexual men on the Internet with almost 1.4 million registered users worldwide .
  • The gay web is a voluntary gay web portal in Germany , which emerged from the self-help concept.
  • Gay agenda is a political phrase used by opponents of homosexual equality.

Others

US President Barack Obama was the first US President to pronounce the word gay in an inaugural address (Inaugural Address for his second term, January 21, 2013):

"It is now our generation's task to carry on what those pioneers began. For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers, and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts. Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law - for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well. Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote. Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity; until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country. Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm. "

Web links

Wiktionary: Gay  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary 2 VI 409 f. Evidence for the appearance of the meaning "happy" and similar in the 20th century can be found in the trailer for the television show The Smurfs , in the Donald Duck cartoon Three Caballeros and in the song I Feel Pretty of the 1957 Broadway musical West Side Story . The development towards today's meaning can be traced with the following examples from the Oxford English Dictionary. In the sense of 'social distraction': The old gentleman, whose character I cannot better express than in the fashionable phrase which has been contrived to palliate false principles and dissolute manners, had been a gay man, and was well aquainted with the town ( 1754); The principal of the firm was what is termed 'gay'. He was particularly fund of attending public entertainments. He sported a little as well, and delighted in horse-racing (1851); - in the sense of "dissolute" and similar: This elder Narcissa had led a gay and wild life while beauty lasted (1891); My patient was a married man, who admitted having been very gay in early life (1897); - in the sense of “homosexual”: Most of the officers at the station had been 'gay' […] an American euphemism for homosexual (1955).
  2. ↑ User overview of Gayromeo, visible to all registered users
  3. ^ Matthias Kolb: Barack Obama: Announcement to Conservative America . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , January 22, 2013. Retrieved January 12, 2014. 
  4. ↑ Full text of the speech