How did the word "Gay" come to mean "homosexual"

College Confidential Community
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<p>Everyone knows that Gay used to mean happy/ joyful bofore. Why has it become a word to describle homosexuality?</p>

<p>saying: You’re really gay today. now and in the past mean completely different things.
I’m just wondering how it happened…</p>

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<p>Uhh… I don’t know.</p>

<p>Maybe because a lot of gay people act like girls that are really happy?</p>

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<p>eh. i dont think that’s it.</p>

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<p>I think i went from queer, meaning strange</p>

<p>well why are they strange?
they are a bit to gay-like in nature</p>

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<p>queer=stange=weird=uncommon=gay</p>

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<p>i wouldn’t say being gay is uncommon. :confused: eh whatever.</p>

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<p>I would.</p>

<p>Even the most liberal studies show that 1 in 10 people of the U.S. population is gay, which I don’t believe AT ALL.</p>

<p>I like 2-4% is a little more like it…</p>

<p>Even if it’s 4% or 10%, both are low.</p>

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<p>From this thread. Now don’t you feel guilty? :)</p>

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<p>I looked it up in wikipedia…
apperantly, gay can also mean that a person does not care about public opinion. So the term gay was used for homosexuals because they’re doing what most people find weird.
That’s what wiki says…</p>

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<p>The New York Times did an article on this and I’m not sure as to how Gay came to mean Homosexual, although at one point it meant happy. It also use to mean a loose women. I believe the 1 in 10 thing. By the way there is a spectrum that Kinsey used, and he said that everyone falls in a certain place on the scale wether be completely straight or completely gay or somewhere in between we all fall in somewhere.</p>

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<p>There is no possible way that 10% of Americans are gay. That’s got to be the most ridiculous figure I’ve heard.</p>

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<p><a href=“URL | Etymology of URL by etymonline”>gay | Etymology of gay by etymonline;

<p>the wonders of google :rolleyes:</p>

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<p>I think that it has something to do with the fact that most gay people are generally happy.</p>

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<p>“I think that it has something to do with the fact that most gay people are generally happy.”</p>

<p>Most gay people I know seem pretty messed up… underneath the surface.</p>

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<p>Most gay people I know are very bubbly and cheery. I have two gay teachers, and I love them.</p>

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<p>Maybe it’s the splendors of sodomy.</p>

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<p>You know I’ve seen plenty of gay people who live more decent lives than a lot of straight couples. But, sadly, their attempts to live a good, moral life are ignored. Instead, they are incessantly criticized by society. It’s so sad. </p>

<p>Do you know that it hurts their feelings when they are called such names? (such as sodomizers)</p>

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<p>I think that the Bible said this: “Let the one who is without sin cast the first stone.” Maybe homophobes should learn something from this quote.</p>

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<p>Can we please not start quoting the Bible? It gets us nowhere. The Bible has so many conflicting passages in it, you can quote it to back up almost any point.</p>

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<p>yeah, that’s fine…</p>