Gay

This article is about gay as an English-language term. For the sexual orientation, see homosexuality. For homosexual men, see gay men. For homosexual women, see lesbian. For other uses, see Gay (disambiguation).

Gay is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.^[1]

While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 19th century, that meaning became increasingly common by the mid-20th century.^[2] In modern English, gay has come to be used as an adjective, and as a noun, referring to the community, practices and cultures associated with homosexuality. In the 1960s, gay became the word favored by homosexual men to describe their sexual orientation.^[3] By the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st century, the word gay was recommended by major LGBT groups and style guides to describe people attracted to members of the same sex,^[4][5] although it is more commonly used to refer specifically to men.^[6]

At about the same time, a new, pejorative use became prevalent in some parts of the world. Among younger speakers, the word has a meaning ranging from derision (e.g., equivalent to 'rubbish' or 'stupid') to a light-hearted mockery or ridicule (e.g., equivalent to 'weak', 'unmanly', or 'lame'). The extent to which these usages still retain connotations of homosexuality has been debated and harshly criticized.^{[7][8][needs update]}

History

Overview

 

Cartoon from Punch magazine in 1857 illustrating the use of "gay" as a colloquial euphemism for being a prostitute.^[9] 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.^[2]

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,^[10] 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.^[2]

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, such as the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin.

Sexualization

 

Usage statistics from English books, according to Google Ngram Viewer.

The word may have started to acquire associations of immorality as early as the 14th century, but had certainly acquired them by the 17th.^[2] By the late 17th century, it had acquired the specific meaning of "addicted to pleasures and dissipations",^[11] an extension of its 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.^[12][2] An example is a letter read to a London court in 1885 during the prosecution of brothel madam and procuress Mary Jeffries that had been written by a girl while enslaved inside of a French brothel:

"I write to tell you it is a gay house...Some captains came in the other night, and the mistress wanted us to sleep with them."^[13]

The use of gay to mean "homosexual" was often an extension of its application to prostitution: a gay boy was a young man or boy serving male clients.^[14]

Similarly, a gay cat was a young male apprenticed to an older hobo and commonly exchanging sex and other services for protection and tutelage.^[2] The application to homosexuality was also an extension of the word's sexualized connotation of "carefree and uninhibited", which implied a willingness to disregard conventional or respectable sexual mores. Such usage, documented as early as the 1920s, was likely present before the 20th century,^[2] although it was initially more commonly used to imply heterosexually unconstrained lifestyles, as in the once-common phrase "gay Lothario",^[15] or in the title of the book and film The Gay Falcon (1941), which concerns a womanizing detective whose first name is "Gay". Similarly, Fred Gilbert and G. H. MacDermott's music hall song of the 1880s, "Charlie Dilke Upset the Milk" – "Master Dilke upset the milk, when taking it home to Chelsea; the papers say that Charlie's gay, rather a wilful wag!" – referred to Sir Charles Dilke's alleged heterosexual impropriety.^[16] Giving testimony in court in 1889, the prostitute John Saul stated: "I occasionally do odd-jobs for different gay people."^[17]

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, first published in the 1930s, 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.^[18] For example:

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

— Gertrude Stein, 1922

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.

Bringing Up Baby (1938) was the first film to use the word gay in an apparent reference to homosexuality. In a scene in which Cary Grant's character's clothes have been sent to the cleaners, he is forced to wear a woman's feather-trimmed robe. When another character asks about his robe, he responds, "Because I just went gay all of a sudden!" Since this was a mainstream film at a time, when the use of the word to refer to cross-dressing (and, by extension, homosexuality) would still be unfamiliar to most film-goers, the line can also be interpreted to mean, "I just decided to do something frivolous."^[19]

In 1950, the earliest reference found to date for the word gay as a self-described name for homosexuals came from Alfred A. Gross, executive secretary for the George W. Henry Foundation, who said in the June 1950 issue of SIR magazine: "I have yet to meet a happy homosexual. They have a way of describing themselves as gay but the term is a misnomer. Those who are habitues of the bars frequented by others of the kind, are about the saddest people I’ve ever seen."^[20]

Shift to specifically homosexual

By the mid-20th century, gay was well established in reference to hedonistic and uninhibited lifestyles^[11] and its antonym straight, which had long had connotations of seriousness, respectability, and conventionality, had now acquired specific connotations of heterosexuality.^[21] 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.^[22] Homosexual is perceived as excessively clinical,^[23][24][25] 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,^[26] all with the stress deliberately on the otherwise completely innocent adjective.

The 1960s marked the transition in the predominant meaning of the word gay from that of "carefree" to the current "homosexual". In the British comedy-drama film Light Up the Sky! (1960), directed by Lewis Gilbert, about the antics of a British Army searchlight squad during World War II, there is a scene in the mess hut where the character played by Benny Hill proposes an after-dinner toast. He begins, "I'd like to propose..." at which point a fellow diner interjects "Who to?", implying a proposal of marriage. The Benny Hill character responds, "Not to you for start, you ain't my type". He then adds in mock doubt, "Oh, I don't know, you're rather gay on the quiet."

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 that a character "took pride in being a homosexual by feeling intellectually and esthetically superior to those (especially women) who weren't gay...."^[27] 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, wherein 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., included the lyric "No milk today, it was not always so; The company was gay, we'd turn night into day."^[28]

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".^[29] The same year, The Kinks recorded "David Watts", which is about a schoolmate of Ray Davies, but is named after a homosexual concert promoter they knew, with the ambiguous line "he is so gay and fancy-free" attesting to the word's double meaning at that time.^[30] As late as 1970, the first episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show has the demonstrably straight Mary Richards' neighbor Phyllis breezily declaiming that Mary is still "young and gay", but in an episode about two years later, Phyllis is told that her brother is "gay", which is immediately understood to mean that he is homosexual.

Homosexuality

Main article: Homosexuality

 

The rainbow flag is a symbol of gay pride.

Sexual orientation, identity, behavior

Main articles: Sexual orientation, Sexual identity, and Human sexual behavior

See also: Situational sexual behavior

The American Psychological Association defines sexual orientation as "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions to men, women, or both sexes," ranging "along a continuum, from exclusive attraction to the other sex to exclusive attraction to the same sex."^[31] Sexual orientation can also be "discussed in terms of three categories: heterosexual (having emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to members of the other sex), gay/lesbian (having emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to members of one's own sex), and bisexual (having emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to both men and women)."^[31]

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."^[32]

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."^[33]

 

Symbol of LGBT

If a person engages in sexual activity with a partner of the same sex but does not self-identify as gay, terms such as 'closeted', 'discreet', or 'bi-curious' may apply. Conversely, a person may identify as gay without having had sex with a same-sex partner. Possible choices include identifying as gay socially, while choosing to be celibate, or while anticipating a first homosexual experience. Further, a bisexual person might also identify as "gay" but others may consider gay and bisexual to be mutually exclusive. There are some who are drawn to the same sex but neither engage in sexual activity nor identify as gay; these could have the term asexual applied, even though asexual generally can mean no attraction, or involve heterosexual attraction but no sexual activity.

Terminology

Main article: Terminology of homosexuality

Some reject the term homosexual as an identity-label because they find it too clinical-sounding;^[24][25][34] 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 the 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.^[6]

There are those who reject the gay label for reasons other than shame or negative connotations. Writer Alan Bennett^[35] and fashion icon André Leon Talley^[36] are out and open gay men who reject being labeled gay, believing the gay label confines them.

Gay community vs. LGBT community

Main article: LGBT community

Starting in the mid-1980s in the United States, a conscious effort was underway within what was then commonly called the gay community, to add the term lesbian to the name of organizations that involved both male and female homosexuals, and to use the terminology of gay and lesbian, lesbian/gay, or a similar phrase when referring to that community. Accordingly, organizations such as the National Gay Task Force became the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. For many feminist lesbians, it was also important that lesbian be named first, to avoid the implication that women were secondary to men, or an afterthought.^[37] In the 1990s, this was followed by a similar effort to include terminology specifically including bisexual, transgender, intersex, and other people, reflecting the intra-community debate about the inclusion of these other sexual minorities as part of the same movement. Consequently, the portmanteau les/bi/gay has sometimes been used, and initialisms such as LGBT, LGBTQ, LGBTQI, and others have come into common use by such organizations, and most news organizations have formally adopted some such variation.

Descriptor

 

"Bar Revenge", a Gay Bar in Brighton, England

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

Use as a noun

The label gay was originally used purely as an adjective ("he is a gay man" or "he is gay"). The term has also been in use as a noun with the meaning "homosexual man" since the 1970s, most commonly in the plural for an unspecified group, as in "gays are opposed to that policy." This usage is somewhat common in the names of organizations such as Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) and Children of Lesbians And Gays Everywhere (COLAGE). It is sometimes used to refer to individuals, as in "he is a gay" or "two gays were there too," although this may be perceived as derogatory.^[38] It was also used for comedic effect by the Little Britain character Dafydd Thomas.

Generalized pejorative use

When used with a derisive attitude (e.g., "that was so gay"), the word gay is pejorative. Though retaining other meanings, its use among young people as a term of disparagement is common with 97 percent of American LGBTQ middle and high school students reporting hearing its negative use in 2021.^[39][7][40] This pejorative usage has its origins in the late 1970s, with the word gaining a pejorative sense by association with the previous meaning: homosexuality was seen as inferior or undesirable.^[41] Beginning in the 1980s, and especially in the late 1990s, the usage as a generic insult became common among young people.^[7]

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 offense in some listeners, and counseled caution on its use.

— BBC Board of Governors^[40]

The BBC's ruling was heavily criticized 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."^[42]

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, as well as the popular perception that vocal homophobia is common among closeted homosexuals.^[43]

In a 2013 article published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, University of Michigan researchers Michael Woodford, Alex Kulick and Perry Silverschanz, alongside Appalachian State University professor Michael L. Howell, argued that the pejorative use of the word "gay" was a microaggression.^[44] Their research found that college-age men were more likely to repeat the word pejoratively if their friends said it, while they were less likely to say it if they had lesbian, gay or bisexual peers.^[44]

Parallels in other languages

• 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.^[45] For example, the term "two spirit" is not interchangeable with "LGBT Native American" or "gay Indian".^[46] This term differs from most western, mainstream definitions of sexuality and gender identity in that it is not a self-chosen term of personal sexual or gender "identity"; rather, it is a sacred, spiritual and ceremonial role that is recognized and confirmed by the Elders of the two spirit's ceremonial community.^[46][47]
• The German equivalent for "gay", "schwul", which is etymologically derived from "schwül" (hot, humid), also acquired the pejorative meaning within youth culture.^[48]

See also

•  LGBT portal

• Anti-LGBT slogans
• Deviance (sociology)
• Gay bashing
• Gay gene (Xq28)
• Gay men
• Gay sexual practices
• Gender identity
• Hate speech
• Heteronormativity
• Heterosexism
• Human female sexuality
• Human male sexuality
• Human Rights Campaign
• Labeling theory
• Lesbian sexual practices
• LGBT rights opposition
• LGBT themes in mythology
• List of gay, lesbian or bisexual people
• List of LGBT events
• National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
• Religion and sexuality
• Sexuality and gender identity-based cultures
• Social stigma
• Tu'er Shen
• Men who have sex with men

References

1. Hobson, Archie (2001). The Oxford Dictionary of Difficult Words (1st ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195146738.
2. Harper, Douglas (2001–2013). "Gay". Online Etymology dictionary. from the original on 19 February 2006. Retrieved 13 February 2006.
3. . Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 21 May 2018. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
4. "GLAAD Media Reference Guide - Terms To Avoid". GLAAD. 25 October 2016. from the original on 20 April 2012. Retrieved 21 April 2012.
5. "Avoiding Heterosexual Bias in Language". American Psychological Association. from the original on 21 March 2015. Retrieved 14 March 2015. (Reprinted from American Psychologist, Vol 46(9), Sep 1991, 973-974 3 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine)
6. "GLAAD Media Reference Guide" (PDF). (PDF) from the original on 12 November 2011. Retrieved 25 September 2011.
7. Winterman, Denise (18 March 2008). "How 'gay' became children's insult of choice". BBC News. from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
8. "Anti-gay abuse seen to pervade U.S. schools". Archived from the original on 1 March 2007.
9. "The Great Social Evil". from the original on 2 April 2016. Retrieved 5 September 2012. Punch magazine, Volume 33, 1857, page 390. A stand-alone editorial cartoon, no accompanying article.
10. xoregos (2 December 1941). "The Gay Parisian (1941)". IMDb. from the original on 9 February 2017. Retrieved 1 July 2018.
11. "gay, adj., adv., and n. (OED Third Edition)". Oxford English Dictionary. June 2008.
12. "Definition of gay | Dictionary.com". www.dictionary.com. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
13. English Girls Decoyed To France, The Sentinel, Issue 73, May 1885, London, p415
14. Muzzy, Frank (2005). Gay and Lesbian Washington, D.C. Arcadia Publishing. p. 7. ISBN 978-0738517537.
15. Brewer, E. Cobham (1898). "Dictionary of Phrase and Fable". from the original on 15 March 2006. Retrieved 8 January 2006.
16. John Major (2012) My Old Man, page 87 and note
17. Kaplan, Morris (1999). "Who's Afraid Of John Saul? Urban Culture and the Politics of Desire in Late Victorian London". GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies. 5 (3): 267–314. doi:10.1215/10642684-5-3-267. S2CID 140452093. from the original on 12 November 2015.
18. Martha E. Stone, Sept–Oct 2002. "Who were Miss Furr and Miss Skeene?" 25 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine, The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide.
19. . Archived from the original on 30 June 2006. Retrieved 24 November 2005.
20. "The Truth About Homosexuals," Sir, June 1950, Sara H. Carleton, New York, p. 57.
21. Harper, Douglas (2001–2013). "Straight". Online Etymology dictionary. from the original on 28 December 2010. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
22. Howard, Philip (7 June 1976). "A queer use of an inoffensive little word". The Times]. London. p. 12. from the original on 1 May 2011. Retrieved 19 October 2009.(subscription required)
23. "Media Reference Guide - Offensive Terms To Avoid". GLAAD. 9 September 2011. from the original on 20 April 2012. Retrieved 24 May 2012.
24. . The New Gay. 16 September 2008. Archived from the original on 24 October 2008. Retrieved 4 August 2009.
25. James Martin (4 November 2000). "The Church and the Homosexual Priest". America The National Catholic Weekly Magazine. from the original on 11 November 2010. Retrieved 4 August 2009.
26. Cocks, H. A. (2002). "'Sporty' Girls and 'Artistic' Boys: Friendship, Illicit Sex, and the British 'Companionship' Advertisement, 1913-1928". Journal of the History of Sexuality. 11 (3): 457–482. doi:10.1353/sex.2003.0008. PMID 17396374. S2CID 7018936.
27. Selby Jr., Hubert "Last Exit To Brooklyn" NY: Grove Press, 1988 p. 23 copyright 1964
28. "The Lyrics Library – Herman's Hermits – No Milk Today". from the original on 5 December 2008. Retrieved 24 November 2008.
29. "The Beatles revive hopes of progress in pop music with their gay new LP". The Times. London. 2 June 2007. from the original on 30 May 2010. Retrieved 3 May 2010.(subscription required)
30. Savage, Jon "The Kinks: The Official Biography" London: Faber and Faber, 1984 pp. 94–96
31. "What causes a person to have a particular sexual orientation?". APA. from the original on 5 May 2012. Retrieved 24 May 2012.
32. Rosario, M.; Schrimshaw, E.; Hunter, J.; Braun, L. (2006). "Sexual identity development among lesbian, gay, and bisexual youths: Consistency and change over time". Journal of Sex Research. 43 (1): 46–58. doi:10.1080/00224490609552298. PMC 3215279. PMID 16817067.
33. Tatchell, Peter (27 November 2006). "Just a phase". The Guardian. London. from the original on 30 August 2013. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
34. (PDF). Archived from the original on 28 May 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
35. "Alan Bennett rejected 'gay label'". BBC News. 6 May 2014. from the original on 9 September 2018. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
36. Sieczkowski, Cavan (12 August 2013). "Vogue's André Leon Talley Rejects 'Gay' Label, Admits To 'Very Gay Experiences'". HuffPost. from the original on 15 May 2017. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
37. Lesbian Ethics, pp. 13–21.
38. The American Heritage Book of English Usage. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 1996. p. 197. ISBN 978-0547563213. from the original on 12 October 2018. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
39. Kosciw, J. G., Clark, C. M., & Menard, L. (2022). The 2021 National School Climate Survey: The experiences of LGBTQ+ youth in our nation’s schools. New York: GLSEN.
40. Sherwin, Adam (6 June 2006). "Gay means rubbish, says BBC". The Times. London. from the original on 30 April 2011. Retrieved 3 May 2010.(subscription required)
41. "Many heterosexual college males say 'That's so gay,' but why? | University of Michigan News". ns.umich.edu. 29 January 2013. from the original on 1 March 2016. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
42. Grew, Tony. "BBC's attitude to homophobic language 'damages children'". Pink News. London. from the original on 28 March 2009. Retrieved 4 March 2009.
43. "Young Liberal Democrats launch 'homophobia is gay' campaign". Pink News. 2006. from the original on 12 October 2008. Retrieved 5 October 2008.
44. Howell, Michael L.; Kulick, Alex; Silverschanz, Perry; Woodford, Michael R. (January 2013). ""That's so Gay" Heterosexual Male Undergraduates and the Perpetuation of Sexual Orientation Microagressions on Campus". Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 28 (2): 416–435. doi:10.1177/0886260512454719. PMID 22929342. S2CID 206562816.
45. Bailey, J. Michael; Vasey, Paul; Diamond, Lisa; Breedlove, S. Marc; Vilain, Eric; Epprecht, Marc (2016). "Sexual Orientation, Controversy, and Science". Psychological Science in the Public Interest. 17 (2): 45–101. doi:10.1177/1529100616637616. PMID 27113562. from the original on 11 June 2020. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
46. Leland, John (8 October 2006). "A Spirit of Belonging, Inside and Out". The New York Times. from the original on 3 September 2018. Retrieved 13 December 2018. 'The elders will tell you the difference between a gay Indian and a Two-Spirit'...underscoring the idea that simply being gay and Indian does not make someone a Two-Spirit.
47. Estrada, Gabriel S. (2011). "Two Spirits, Nádleeh, and LGBTQ2 Navajo Gaze". American Indian Culture and Research Journal. UCLA American Indian Studies Center. 35 (4): 167–190. doi:10.17953/aicr.35.4.x500172017344j30. (subscription required)
48. Robert Sedlaczek, Roberta Baron: leet & leiwand. Das Lexikon der Jugendsprache, Echomedia, 2006, ISBN 3-901761-49-7

Further reading

• Cory, Donald Webster (1951). The Homosexual in America: A Subjective Approach. Greenberg. p. 107. Chapter 9 ("Take My Word For It") includes a valuable discussion of the term "gay.".
• Leap, William (1995). Beyond the Lavender Lexicon: Authenticity, Imagination, and Appropriation in Lesbian and Gay Language. Taylor & Francis. p. 360. ISBN 978-2-88449-181-5.

External links

•   The dictionary definition of Gay at Wiktionary
•   Media related to Gay at Wikimedia Commons
•   Quotations related to Gay at Wikiquote
• Gay at Curlie