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Adelina Richards English 127H Casey Wiley October 22, 2012 Homophobia is So Gay One day while walking home from school, I overheard two middle school girls talking. As they conversed, one slipped on a patch of ice and fell. Ouch! she cried, This ice is so gay!. I immediately stopped in my tracks, filled with utter shock. How could ice be gay? It wasnt alive, it couldnt form thoughts. In fact, it wasnt even human. It beguiled me that a girl who couldnt have been much older than twelve had associated an inanimate object that caused her pain with the word gay. Evidently, the word gay no longer means happy, and what used to mean homosexuality now is a blanket term for all things dumb. Clearly the use of the word gay has changed drastically over time, but what could have caused its meaning to change so much? Overtime the word has been used to describe beautiful women, womanizers, happiness, homosexuals, and stupidity. General uses of the word slurred with time, and many small changes in meaning led to one large shift. In todays society the word gay can take on many different faces. We more generally see a connection between the word gay and homosexual culture, however it is also used as slang for lame by American youths. It is has stemmed as a source of pride in ones sexual orientation, as well as a form of nomenclature. The word arose as a synonym for homosexual because queer was heard too often as an insult, and homosexual reminded many of the times that homosexuality was considered a mental disease. Considering that it wasnt removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) until the 1970s, the wound is still

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rather fresh. In addition, many protest the term since homosexual was based too much on ones sexual orientation rather than the emotion and love that binds such a relationship (Gay E). Henceforth, it was found to be better to identify oneself using a word that was earlier associated with ideas such as carefree and happy. Having a cheerful word to identify oneself with is essential to the gay community because unlike other minority groups, they usually grow up without others like them in an environment that is hostile towards their sexuality. In this way, the term strengthens their sense of community and provides something to identify with in an abusive world. However, many homosexuals dont want to identify themselves as gays because of the current social issues related to the term. With issues such as the gay teen suicide rate, its pejorative use, and conservative protesters who proclaim that gays are possessed by demons, you cant really blame them. In spite of this, many reporters refer to the homosexual community as the Gays, and are prompted to do so according to the GLAAD media reference guide. In this guide, it is highly stressed to replace the word homosexual with lesbian or gay, and to refer to straight people as heterosexuals in order to be politically correct (GLAAD). This, along with the controversial public issues previously stated, leads to a strict separation between gay and straight. It seems that this divide has created a new use of the word in youth culture. A word that used to bring wonderful images to mind is now associated with ideas such as stupid and lame. This transition between its original use and its new associations with homosexuality and stupidity can be traced back to hundreds of years ago. The word gay first appeared in 1325 and was used by G.L. Brooke to flirt with an extremely attractive woman (gay). Back in the day, if someone called you gay it was a compliment, and was used by many poets to describe noble women. Its meaning shifted from

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noble and beautiful to showy, finely dressed, or carefree in the 1400s (Gay E). This shift could be akin to the relationship between beauty and happiness, for one is at their most beautiful when they dont have a care in the world (or perhaps the lady was only ravishing when she was finely dressed and wearing a ton of makeup). The late 1700s brought this definition to describe poetry as the gay science - no, not homosexual people performing science experiments in a lab. Rather, it was coined this because it was beautiful and many times its structure did not fit the societal norm. Even though it alluded to going against societal norms, the word gay would not have any connection to sex for another hundred years. In the 1800s, the term was used to describe a person who was involved in certain kinds of sexual actions. Since the term meant carefree and frivolous, it was used to describe exactly that: a carefree and frivolous mindset on sex. This mainly included prostitutes and womanizers like a Tiger Woods yesteryear. Brothels and stripper clubs would be referred to as gay houses in this time for exploiting women in a sexual manner. In fact, the only sexual connotation of the term was in a heterosexual context until the 1920s (Gay E). Think back to the days of Hemingway and Fitzgerald, where many American writers flocked to Paris in order to live a carefree day to day life and forget the tragedies of WWI. Here, Gertrude Stein writes, "They were ...gay, they learned little things that are things in being gay, ... they were quite regularly gay. about two women in a homosexual relationship (qtd. Gay E). Many speculate on whether she is referring to them as lesbian or just being happy in general; as was the trend for the lost generation in Paris. Due to many cases of this kind of ambiguity, for a few more decades it continued to simply mean carefree. This is evident in movie titles of the era such as "The Gay Divorcee", a 1934 movie about a heterosexual couple (Gay E).

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On the other hand, slowly over time gays began to use the term as an underground form of identification. For example, in West Village, NYC there's a street that was known as "Gay Street" by many homosexuals. It was a center of gay culture in the 1940's, where the phrase "Are you gay?" was asking a lot more then whether or not you were happy. Eventually, the term in relation to homosexuality was embraced by the heterosexual community as well, since the connotation wasnt offensive, and was almost praising the homosexual lifestyle. Nonetheless, the term kept its meaning of happy until around the 1960s which introduced a large variety of societal advances for Gays. Many sodomy and anti-gay laws in the United States, Canada, and England were deemed unlawful during this time, allowing many to freely express their sexuality. With the first gay pride sit in demonstration in 1965, came public attention to the term in the context of the gay identity we know today (Stein 22). At first, gay shifting to a derogatory word meaning lame or stupid doesnt seem to follow the logical transition earlier described. Its first recorded use was in 1978, where an outfit that made a character look ridiculous was referred to as gay (gay). It is assumed that the term used in this sense is now not related to homosexuality; however it probably evolved from bullying. In American High Schools, it is not unusual to see bullies pushing around a kid and calling him gay. Since this use of the word is as- if not more- insulting as calling someone stupid or lame, gay eventually took on a meaning for these words as well. Therefore, saying something is gay, meaning stupid, is akin to saying everything gay is stupid. So even though its usually said casually, it can have malicious effects on the young gay population. David Phillips comments, Consider a teenage boy or girl, just coming to terms with themselves and hearing the common term describing their sexuality - gay - being used as a synonym for something uncool, "sad" and disappointing(qtd. Winterman).

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Henceforth, there has been a recent effort to eradicate the pejorative use of gay. On May 31st of this year, a New York Times article was published about a court ruling concerning the term gay as a defamatory term. The court ruled that falsely calling someone gay could no longer be taken to court as slander because there is no negative association with the word gay, and being called such should not make one feel disgraced (Court). However, from fag to cock mongrel, different words have emerged to shame gays. Some speculate that once gay rights activists have eliminated the derogatory use of the word, another will simply take its place (Winterman). It is in the human nature to bully and hurt, which is why terms like queer and faggot exist. Before kids were making fun of others for being gay, they were making fun of them for their gender or skin color. At a basic level, humans hate what is different because it scares them. A perfect example of this raw hatred can be seen in the song Savages from Disneys Pocahontas. It includes phrases such as, Theyre not like you and I are, which means they must be evil...they cant be trusted...barely even human...I wonder if they even bleed(Pocahontas). Blind hatred stems from the innate and sheer ignorance of humans. This hatred has morphed an insult into an innocent phrase. This ice is so gay! was not a sentence formed to put anyone down, and its speaker probably didnt think twice about homosexuality. This usage is changing the way young people think and react to the world. While living in a society that stresses constantly being politically correct, its hard to distinguish what terms are allowed in certain contexts. Because of this confusion, many casually use a word associated with gay pride to describe something bad. Overtime, the word gay has evolved from a compliment to women to a source of gay pride. General uses of the word slurred with time, and many small changes in meaning led to one large shift. It is shocking to recognize that there was a

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time where politicians envisioned gays as people with horns, and that homosexual love was once known as the love that could not speak its name. Now it is spoken, loud and proud, fighting against all those who would wish to silence them.

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Works Cited "Gay, Adj., Adv., and N." Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press, 2012. Web. 24 Oct. 2012. "Gay - Etymology." Enlightenment. Global Oneness, June-July 2012. Web. 20 Oct. 2012. "GLAAD Media Reference Guide - Offensive Terms To Avoid." GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation). GLAAD, May-June 2010. Web. 24 Oct. 2012. Pocahontas. Dir. Mike Gabriel and Eric Goldberg. By Carl Binder, Susannah Grant, Philip LaZebnik, Irene Bedard, Judy Kuhn, Mel Gibson, and David Ogden Stiers. Walt Disney Pictures, 1995. DVD. Stein, Marc. "The First Gay Sit-in." Philadelphia Gay News Apr.-May 2005, 10th ed.: 2223 Print. The Associated Corp. "Label of Gay Is No Longer Defamatory, Court Rules." The New York Times. The New York Times, 01 June 2012. Web. 20 Oct. 2012. Winterman, Denise. "How 'gay' Became Children's Insult of Choice." BBC News. BBC, 18 Mar. 2008. Web. 20 Oct. 2012.