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84-395: 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'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 19th century, that meaning became increasingly common by the mid-20th century. In modern English , gay has come to be used as an adjective , and as

168-410: 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 . By the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st century, the word gay was recommended by major LGBTQ groups and style guides to describe people attracted to members of the same sex, although it

252-441: A prostitute , a gay man a womanizer , and a gay house a brothel . 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. The use of gay to mean "homosexual"

336-415: 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." 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

420-454: A flagrant carbon copy of their version of The Saint, in my opinion with the single mercenary motive of saving the payments they had to make to me for the film rights." Charteris actually pokes fun at The Falcon in his 1943 novel The Saint Steps In , with a character making a metafictional reference to the Falcon being "a bargain-basement imitation" of The Saint. George Sanders appeared in

504-410: 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." 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

588-409: 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

672-617: 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 LGBTQ , LGBTQ , LGBTQI , and others have come into common use by such organizations, and most news organizations have formally adopted some such variation. The term gay can also be used as an adjective to describe things related to homosexual men, or things which are part of

756-434: 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." 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

840-592: A synonym for tribade that also refers to rubbing but has a Latin rather than a Greek root, appeared in English as early as 1605 (in Ben Jonson 's Volpone ). Its usage suggests that it was more colloquial and more pejorative than tribade . Variants include the Latinized confricatrice and English rubster . Though sodomy has been used to refer to a range of homosexual and heterosexual " unnatural acts ",

924-421: A willingness to disregard conventional or respectable sexual mores . Such usage, documented as early as the 1920s, was likely present before the 20th century, although it was initially more commonly used to imply heterosexually unconstrained lifestyles, as in the once-common phrase " gay Lothario ", or in the title of the book and film The Gay Falcon (1941), which concerns a womanizing detective whose first name

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1008-429: Is pejorative . Though retaining other meanings, its use among young people as a term of disparagement is common; 97 percent of American LGBTQ middle and high school students reported hearing its negative use as of 2021. 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. Beginning in

1092-502: 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. Giving testimony in court in 1889, the prostitute John Saul stated: "I occasionally do odd-jobs for different gay people." Well into

1176-456: Is homosexual. 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." Sexual orientation can also be "discussed in terms of three categories: heterosexual (having emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to members of

1260-512: Is more commonly used to refer specifically to men. 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. The word gay arrived in English during

1344-488: Is often considered a derogatory epithet . Coined by the German astrologist, author and psychoanalyst Karl-Günther Heimsoth in his 1924 doctoral dissertation Hetero- und Homophilie , the term was in common use in the 1950s and 1960s by homosexual organizations and publications; the groups of this period are now known collectively as the homophile movement . Popular in the 1950s and 1960s (and still in occasional use in

1428-603: Is perceived as excessively clinical, 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

1512-644: 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. For example: They were ... gay, they learned little things that are things in being gay, ... they were quite regularly gay. The word continued to be used with

1596-474: 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. It was also used for comedic effect by the Little Britain character Dafydd Thomas. To avoid pejorative connotations, the adjective form can be used instead, e.g. "gay person" or "gay people". When used with a derisive attitude (e.g., "that was so gay"), the word gay

1680-430: Is the preferred term. People with a same-gender sexual orientation generally prefer the terms gay , lesbian , or bisexual . The most common terms are gay (both men and women) and lesbian (women only). Other terms include same gender loving and same-sex-oriented. Among some sectors of gay sub-culture, same-gender sexual behavior is sometimes viewed as solely for physical pleasure instead of romantic. Men on

1764-594: The Board of Governors over the negative use of the word by Chris Moyles advises that "caution on its use"; however, it acknowledges its common use among young people to mean "rubbish" or "lame". 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

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1848-518: The Gaiety Theatre in Dublin. The word may have started to acquire associations of sexual immorality as early as the 14th century, but had certainly acquired them by the 17th. By the late 17th century, it had acquired the specific meaning of "addicted to pleasures and dissipations", an extension of its primary meaning of "carefree" implying "uninhibited by moral constraints". A gay woman was

1932-555: The LGBT community . In addition to the stigma surrounding homosexuality, terms have been influenced by taboos around sex in general, producing a number of euphemisms . A gay person may be described as "that way", "a bit funny", "light in his loafers", "on the bus", "batting for the other team", "a friend of Dorothy ", "women who wear comfortable shoes" (lesbians), although such euphemisms are becoming less common as homosexuality becomes more visible. Harry Hay frequently stated that, in

2016-827: The Prussian Penal Code and Its Maintenance as Paragraph 152 of the Draft of a Penal Code for the North German Confederation "). The pamphlet was written by Karl-Maria Kertbeny , but published anonymously. It advocated the repeal of Prussia's sodomy laws . Kertbeny had previously used the word in a private letter written in 1868 to Karl Heinrich Ulrichs . Kertbeny used Homosexualität (in English, 'homosexuality') in place of Ulrichs' Urningtum ; Homosexualisten ('male homosexualists') instead of Urninge , and Homosexualistinnen ('female homosexualists') instead of Urninden . The term

2100-615: The ancient Greek philosopher Plato described (through the character of the profane comedian Aristophanes ) three sexual orientations – heterosexuality, male homosexuality, and female homosexuality – and provided explanations for their existence using an invented creation myth . Although this term refers to a specific sex act between women today, in the past it was commonly used to describe female-female sexual love in general, and women who had sex with women were called Tribads or Tribades. As author Rictor Norton explains: The tribas , lesbian, from Greek tribein , to rub (i.e. rubbing

2184-431: The down-low (or DL) may engage in covert sexual activity with other men while pursuing sexual and romantic relationships with women. The choice of terms regarding sexual orientation may imply a certain political outlook, and different terms have been preferred at different times and in different places. Historian and philosopher Michel Foucault argued that homosexual and heterosexual identities did not emerge until

2268-551: The pudenda together, or clitoris upon pubic bone , etc.), appears in Greek and Latin satires from the late first century. The tribade was the most common (vulgar) lesbian in European texts for many centuries. 'Tribade' occurs in English texts from at least as early as 1601 to at least as late as the mid-nineteenth century before it became self-consciously old-fashioned—it was in current use for nearly three centuries. Fricatrice ,

2352-507: The 12th century from Old French gai , most likely deriving ultimately from a Germanic source. 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

2436-481: The 18th century, with the connotation of lesbian. In 1773, a London magazine described sex between women as "Sapphic passion". The adjective form Sapphic is sometimes used nowadays as an inclusive umbrella term that expresses the sexuality and romantic attraction of queer women, including bisexuals, nonbinary, and trans people However, this is not accepted by all women who identify as lesbian. Today, pederasty refers to male attraction towards adolescent boys, or

2520-449: The 1930s–1940s, gay people referred to themselves as temperamental . Although the word was originally synonymous with happy or cheerful , in the 20th century it gradually came to designate someone who is romantically or sexually attracted to someone of the same gender or sex . The Falcon (literary character) Arlen's Falcon was quickly brought to the screen by RKO Radio Pictures . The 1941 film The Gay Falcon redefined

2604-419: The 1941 Warner Brothers movie, The Gay Parisian , 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. 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

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2688-532: The 1980s, and especially in the late 1990s, the usage as a generic insult became common among young people. Use of "gay" in some circumstances continues to be considered a pejorative in present day. As recently as 2023, the American Psychological Association described language like "that's so gay" as heterosexist and heteronormative . The pejorative usage of the word "gay" has been criticized as homophobic . A 2006 BBC ruling by

2772-575: The 1990s, particularly in writing by Anglican clergy), the term homophile was an attempt to avoid the clinical implications of sexual pathology found with the word homosexual, emphasizing love ( -phile ) instead. The first element of the word, the Greek root homo- , means 'same'; it is unrelated to Latin homo , 'person'. In almost all languages where the words homophile and homosexual were both in use (i.e., their cognate equivalents: German Homophil and Homosexuell , Italian omofilo and omosessuale , etc.), homosexual won out as

2856-457: The 19th century. Prior to that time, he said, the terms described practices and not identity. Foucault cited Karl Westphal 's famous 1870 article Contrary Sexual Feeling as the "date of birth" of the categorization of sexual orientation. Some scholars, however, have argued that there are significant continuities between past and present conceptualizations of sexuality, with various terms having been used for homosexuality. In his Symposium ,

2940-415: The Falcon series was to tack "teaser" epilogues onto the ends of films. In each teaser, a previously unseen woman would approach the Falcon, usually in desperation, and signal the title and locale of his next movie. A teaser rarely had anything to do with the plot of the upcoming film, since that film had not yet been produced. The Falcon was revived for three more films, all made in 1948, but these featured

3024-698: 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." By the mid-20th century, gay was well established in reference to hedonistic and uninhibited lifestyles and its antonym straight , which had long had connotations of seriousness, respectability, and conventionality, had now acquired specific connotations of heterosexuality. In

3108-573: The Safe Schools Coalition of Washington's Glossary for School Employees advises that gay is the "preferred synonym for homosexual", and goes on to suggest avoiding the term homosexual as it is "clinical, distancing, and archaic". However, the terms homosexual and homosexuality are sometimes deemed appropriate in referring to behavior (although same-gender is the preferred adjective). Using homosexuality or homosexual to refer to behavior may be inaccurate but does not carry

3192-592: The UK, and others. The term homosexual can be used as an adjective to describe the sexual attractions and behaviors of people attracted to the same sex. Author and gay pioneer Quentin Crisp said that the term should be "homosexualist", adding that no one says "I am a sexual." Some gay people argue that the use of homosexual as a noun is offensive, arguing that they are people first and their homosexuality being merely an attribute of their humanity. Even if they do not consider

3276-418: The adjective homosexual to refer to any single-gender context (such as an all-girls school), today the term implies a sexual aspect. The term homosocial is now used to describe single-sex contexts that are not of a romantic or sexual nature. The colloquial abbreviation homo for homosexual is a coinage of the interbellum period , first recorded as a noun in 1929, and as an adjective in 1933. Today, it

3360-421: The ambiguous line "he is so gay and fancy-free" attesting to the word's double meaning at that time. 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

3444-408: 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. Homosexual

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3528-535: The character as a suave English gentleman detective with a weakness for beautiful women. Though Gay Falcon was the character's name in Arlen's original story, the character was renamed Gay Laurence for the film. (The surname was spelled "Lawrence" in subsequent films.) Thus "The Falcon" became an alias or nickname, à la "The Saint." In later outings, in various media, the character had a variety of "real names," still being known as The Falcon. Neither in films nor on radio

3612-432: The cultural institutions that support such relations, as in ancient Greece. However, in the 18th and 19th centuries, the word usually referred to male homosexuality in general. A pederast was also the active partner in anal sex, whether with a male or a female partner. This relationship is socially frowned upon in modern cultures while legally defined by the age of consent. The word homosexual translates literally as "of

3696-670: 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

3780-482: 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

3864-413: The earlier "Michael Waring" character as created by Drexel Drake. However, he was referred to as "Watling" and the credits still claimed he was based on a character created by Michael Arlen. Actor-magician John Calvert played "The New Falcon" in three low-budget features produced by Film Classics . The character went on to appear (as Michael Waring) in radio and television – Charles McGraw portrayed

3948-580: The early 5th century, Jerome , a priest, historian, and theologian used the forms Sodoman , in Sodomis , Sodomorum , Sodomæ , Sodomitæ . The modern German word Sodomie and the Norwegian sodomi also refer to bestiality . Sodomy in historical biblical reference may not pertain to the acts of homosexuality, but the acts of bestiality and female and male castration for the purpose of sexual slavery . Lesbian writer Emma Donoghue found that

4032-516: The efforts to raise awareness, stop using anti-LGBT language and safely intervene when they are present and anti-LGBT harassment and behavior occurs." Research has looked into the use and effect of the pejorative. 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

4116-423: The emergence of the first terms in the mid-19th century. In English, some terms in widespread use have been sodomite , Achillean , Sapphic , Uranian , homophile , lesbian , gay , effeminate , queer , homoaffective, and same-gender attracted. Some of these words are specific to women, some to men, and some can be used of either. Gay people may also be identified under the umbrella term LGBT . Homosexual

4200-503: The first four Falcon features. When Sanders tired of B leads, he bowed out of the series in The Falcon's Brother (1942). In the film, Gay Lawrence is killed by assassins, prompting his brother Tom, played by Sanders's actual older brother, Tom Conway , to become the new Falcon. Producer Maurice Geraghty later revealed that RKO executives had recruited Conway simply as a way to induce Sanders to make one more Falcon picture, after which

4284-421: The first page of chapter 1, he discusses the terminology, naming Ulrichs' use of Uranian ( German : Uranier ) from 1862, which later morphed into Urning , and using Urningtum as the name of the condition. Ellis reported that the first accepted scientific term was contrary sexual feeling ( Konträre Sexualempfindung ), coined by Westphal in 1869, and used by Krafft-Ebing and others. This term

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4368-542: The gay label for reasons other than shame or negative connotations. Writer Alan Bennett and fashion icon André Leon Talley are out and open queer men who reject being labeled gay, believing the gay label confines them. 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

4452-501: The language of sexual orientation by making no claim about the individual's own gender identity. However, they are not commonly used. Side describes someone who does not practice anal sex and therefore does not define himself as top , bottom or versatile . This term is sometimes used in American literature to present an alternative to the binary classification which notes the preferred sexual position, such as top or bottom ;

4536-526: 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)

4620-648: The modern conventional neutral term. However, in Norway, the Netherlands and the Flemish/Dutch part of Belgium, the term is still widely used. Not all terms have been used to describe same-gender sexuality are synonyms for the modern term homosexuality . Anna Rüling , one of the first women to publicly defend gay rights, considered gay people a third gender , different from both men and women. Terms such as gynephilia and androphilia have tried to simplify

4704-506: The modern usage developed. 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

4788-553: The negative clinical association of the word stemming from its use in describing same-gender attraction as a pathological state before homosexuality was removed from the American Psychiatric Association 's list of mental disorders in 1973. The Associated Press and New York Times style guides restrict usage of the terms. Same-gender oriented people seldom apply such terms to themselves, and public officials and agencies often avoid them. For instance,

4872-528: 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." 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

4956-409: 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

5040-488: 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)." 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

5124-451: The pejorative use of the word "gay" was a microaggression . They 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. A 2019 study used data collected in a 2013 survey of cisgender LGBQ college students to evaluate the effects of microaggressions like "that's so gay" and "no homo." It found that increased exposure to

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5208-434: The period, the hero is almost always accompanied in his travels by a wisecracking sidekick, portrayed variously by Allen Jenkins (in the first three Falcon films), Don Barclay , Cliff Edwards , Edward Brophy , and Vince Barnett . The new Falcon films followed the "Saint" pattern so closely that author Charteris sued RKO, charging unfair competition. Charteris told author David Zinman in 1971, "RKO switched to The Falcon,

5292-508: The phrase "that's so gay" was significantly associated with greater developmental challenge (a measure of academic stressors). Research published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence in 2021 finds that use of anti-gay banter among Midwestern middle and high school students such as "that's so gay" is perceived less negatively and more humorously if the person saying it is a friend. Terminology of homosexuality Terms used to describe homosexuality have gone through many changes since

5376-472: The popular perception that vocal homophobia is common among closeted homosexuals. The United States had its own popular campaign against the pejorative use of "gay" called Think B4 You Speak. It was created in 2008 in partnership with the Advertising Council, GLSEN, and Arnold NYC . This initiative created television, radio, print and web PSAs with goals "to motivate teens to become allies in

5460-420: 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...." Later examples of

5544-445: 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

5628-520: The same potentially offensive connotations that using homosexual to describe a person does. When referring to people, homosexual might be considered derogatory and the terms gay and lesbian are preferred. Some have argued that homosexual places emphasis on sexuality over humanity, and is to be avoided when describing a person. Gay man or lesbian are the preferred nouns for referring to people, which stress cultural and social matters over sex. The New Oxford American Dictionary says that gay

5712-608: The same sex", being a hybrid of the Greek prefix homo- meaning 'same' (as distinguished from the Latin root homo meaning 'human') and the Latin root sex meaning 'sex'. The first known public appearance of the term homosexual in print is found in an 1869 German pamphlet 143 des Preussischen Strafgesetzbuchs und seine Aufrechterhaltung als 152 des Entwurfs eines Strafgesetzbuchs für den Norddeutschen Bund ("Paragraph 143 of

5796-424: The series would end. "So it was astonishing to them when Tom Conway caught on right away and carried the series on – even outgrossing the pictures George had made." After The Falcon's Brother , Conway starred in nine more Falcon films through 1946. As with other series of B mystery films, the plot of a Falcon movie generally revolved around a particular locale that the detective was visiting. An oft-used gimmick in

5880-434: The term asexual applied, even though asexual generally can mean no attraction, or involve heterosexual attraction but no sexual activity. Some reject the term homosexual as an identity-label because they find it too clinical-sounding; 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

5964-445: The term lesbian (with its modern meaning) has been in use in the English language from at least the 18th century. The 1732 epic poem by William King , The Toast , uses "lesbian loves" and "tribadism" interchangeably: "she loved Women in the same Manner as Men love them; she was a Tribad". Named after the female Greek poet Sappho who lived on Lesbos Island and wrote love poems to women, this term has been in use since at least

6048-582: The term sodomite usually refers to a homosexual male even though the real meaning is of unreproductive sex. The term is derived from the Biblical tale of Sodom and Gomorrah , and Christian churches have referred to the crimen sodomitae (crime of the Sodomites) for centuries. The modern association with homosexuality can be found as early as AD 96 in the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus . In

6132-574: 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. There are those who reject

6216-681: The term side indicates one's affinity for neither of this binary classification. There are established languages of slang (sometimes known as cants ) such as Polari in Britain , Swardspeak in the Philippines , Bahasa Binan in Indonesia , Lubunca in Turkey , and Kaliardá ( Καλιαρντά ) in Greece . A variety of LGBT slang terms have been used historically and contemporarily within

6300-421: The term offensive, some people in same-gender relationships may object to being described as homosexual because they identify as bisexual+ , or another orientation. Some style guides recommend that the terms homosexual and homosexuality be avoided altogether, lest their use cause confusion or arouse controversy. In particular, the description of individuals as homosexual may be offensive, partially because of

6384-550: 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. In the 1990s, this was followed by

6468-549: The terms sexual inversion and homosexuality in the 3rd edition, with slightly different meanings. The first known use of homosexual in English is in Charles Gilbert Chaddock 's 1892 translation of Richard von Krafft-Ebing 's Psychopathia Sexualis , a study on sexual practices. The term was popularized by the 1906 Harden–Eulenburg Affair . The word homosexual itself had different connotations 100 years ago than today. Although some early writers used

6552-418: 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, 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

6636-535: Was coined and originally used primarily by German psychiatrists and psychologists. Havelock Ellis in his 1901 Studies in the Psychology of Sex wrote about the evolving terminology in the area, which ended up settling on homosexuality . In the preface to the first edition (1900), Ellis calls it sexual inversion , and volume 2 of the book is titled "Sexual Inversion". In the preface to the third edition (1927) Ellis referred to it as "the study of homosexuality". On

6720-404: Was coined in German in 1868. Academia continues to coin related terms, including androphilia and gynephilia which designate only the object of attraction, thus divorcing the terms from sexual orientation entirely. Numerous slang terms exist for homosexuals or homosexuality. Some communities have cants , a rich jargon used among a subgroup almost like a secret language, such as Polari in

6804-487: Was gay , we'd turn night into day." 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". 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

6888-425: Was never used outside Germany, and soon went out of favor even there. The term homosexuality was invented by Kertbeny in the same year (1869) but attracted no attention for some time, later achieving prominence, and was easily translatable into many languages, including by Hirschfeld in his 1914 book Die Homosexualität des Mannes und des Weibes , one of the top authorities in the field. Ellis continued to use both

6972-401: Was often an extension of its application to prostitution: a gay boy was a young man or boy serving male clients. Similarly, a gay cat was a young male apprenticed to an older hobo and commonly exchanging sex and other services for protection and tutelage. The application to homosexuality was also an extension of the word's sexualized connotation of "carefree and uninhibited", which implied

7056-496: Was the nickname ever explained. The Gay Falcon was intended to establish a replacement character for Leslie Charteris 's The Saint (Simon Templar) , who had appeared in a popular RKO film series. To that end, George Sanders , star of The Saint series, was cast in the Falcon role, with "Saint" love interest Wendy Barrie continuing opposite Sanders. In the Falcon movies, as in the Leslie Charteris "Saint" novels of

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