Who started calling homo's "gay"?

Question

Gay used to mean "happy"...Who's idea was it to come up with a new meaning of it? And why destroy a perfectly good word? Why not call them homo's instead?
If i were to say, im feeling gay today, everyone will assume im a homo now thanks to u people

Answer 1

ditto radagast and dash....
and, if you didn't keep asking narrow-minded insulting questions most of the time, people wouldn't make the (probably true) assumption that you're a closet case.
feeling gay today...LOL!!!

Answer 2

I agree with motorrobin, the English language changes all the time. Slang will never stay the same... in a few years the term gay might not even prompt the thought of homosexuals. : )

The word gay has already started to change, when someone says "that's gay"... It usually means stupid or ridiculous.

Heck, Maybe all the homosexual guys were very happy, someone said "you guys are so gay" and another person mistook the meaning of the word . : } ( : It could happen : )

Answer 3

I would expect the homosexuals themselves promoted the term ""gay"" - and of course the media, being the dinks they are, ""ran with it!""

That crowd work hard, often in the high tipping area, and are big big spenders. This makes them a very powerful political lobby.

If and when they come up with a term, belief, or false figure (10%?), they are listened to because of their dollar wealth.

The Official Medical Term GRIDS was rapidly changed to AIDS because of that lobby and wealth.
(was Gay Related Immune Deficiency Syndrome.)

That same community have taken The Gods rainbow sign as their own too, but I do not think there is any reason to loose sleep.

Instead of getting upset, or hating, a people with a deviation - would it not be bbetter to just PRAY for them!

I have met quite a few - they are not really evil people.

Answer 4

Gay still means Happy and if you have any confidence in your straight macho being then feel free to say that you are feeling Gay. Stop being such a woose! Gay has existed as a 'code' word for gay since around nineteen-ten. It gained prominence in 1937 when Cary Grant, in the film 'Bringing Up Baby,' shouted out "I've Gone Gay," to explain to his Mother why he was wearing a floral print house dress. As late as the late nineteen fifties it was perfectly fine for a song to proclaim that the Flinstone Family was going to have a Gay Time. Go Gay, be brave, be happy, language is fun.

Answer 5

I'm sorry to sound offended, but homosexuality was once thought to be a disease, ithink people started calling themselves gay because they wanted to be recognized as happy, one man probably said "hey, i'm feeling gay today" then kissed his partner or something, it is a perfectly good word to use to say you are happy and at least you aren't trying to be ignorant(even though what you said at he end was o.d. and not everyone would assume you're a homo, only if you said you were a homo,

meh I give up, I sound retarded. bye

Answer 6

YOU sure ask a lot of questions of the GLBT community. Sounds like someone named "me m" has a thing for gay boys.

"If i were to say, im feeling gay today, everyone will assume im a homo now thanks to u people" ... we assume that because of all of your homophobic closet-case questions. I bet talking like this to your friends makes them not suspect a thing. Pathetic!

Answer 7

Deal with it, words change, it's not just the word gay! And what do you mean by "u people"? Your an a$$ and you need to get over yourself!

Answer 8

In the 1700's the name meant one who indulges in pleasures. In the 20th century the name has changed slightly to include (for the most part homosexual males).

A great article is included below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay

Answer 9

As you can see, most of the other posters are incorrect, and/or allowing their bigotry to color their answer.

When the term was first applied to gay people, it started out as an insult aimed at gay people by straight people, but the gay people reclaimed it and totally took the power out of it.

Check out the article on wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay

Here are a couple relevant paragraphs from it:

The use of the term gay, as it relates to homosexuality, arises from an extension of the sexualised connotation of "carefree and uninhibited", implying a willingness to disregard conventional or respectable sexual mores. Such usage is documented as early as the 1920s. It was initially more commonly used to imply heterosexually unconstrained lifestyles, as for example in the once-common phrase "gay Lothario",[2] or in the title of the book and film The Gay Falcon (1941), which concerns a womanising detective whose first name is "Gay". Well into the mid 20th century a middle-aged bachelor could be described as "gay" without prejudice.

By the mid-century "gay" was well-established as an antonym for "straight" (respectable sexual behaviour), and to refer to the lifestyles of unmarried and or unattached people. Other connotations of frivolousness and showiness in dress ("gay attire") led to association with camp and effeminacy. This range of connotation probably affected the gradual movement of the term towards its current dominant meaning, which was at first confined to subcultures. The subcultural usage started to become mainstream in the 1960s, when gay became the term predominantly preferred by homosexual men to describe themselves. Gay was the preferred term since other terms, such as "queer" were felt to be derogatory. "Homosexual" was perceived as excessively clinical: especially since homosexuality was at that time designated as a mental illness, and "homosexual" was used by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) to denote men affected by this "mental illness". Homosexuality was no longer classified as an illness in the DSM by 1973, but the clinical connotation of the word was already embedded in society.

Answer 10

People just like you. Gay was originally used as an attack. Gay people adopted it to use for themselves. 20 years later, we have people like you asking how it happened.

Regards,

Reyn
http://www.rebuff.org
[e-mail]

Answer 11

who cares!, why does the english language change?.... why do we as people change the useage and meaning of some english words??.....
its not just the word gay that has had its meaning changed....