Gay Couples

[whiskeryron]

I really would like to know why Homosexual persons are called Gay, in the order of things surely the opposite of gay is miserable, does it follow then that married men & women should be termed miserable ? I think it only right that things are put right once & for all & same sex couples are called correctly Homosexuals, after-all it's not going to do them any harm is it ?

W Ron.

[boxtops]

Interesting question - the youngsters nowadays call people gay (you're just so gay) if they mean stupid http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay

[NOX]

It's just language evolution Ron, it happens, don't be so possesive over a word, it really doesn't matter. If language never changed we'd all still be grunting and pointing to get ourselves understood.

[Mojo-Jo-Jo]

We could just call them "couples" That'd fix it. *shrugs*

[mrs_overall]

I think a lot of married couples ARE miserable

[jackthehat]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay

[jackthehat]

Sorry, boxtops, I hadn't noticed you provide the same link......

[ChuckFickens]

I look forward to the time all such terms (be it gay, black, or whatever) stops being such an issue to people!

[grandpajoe]

Good As You. I was told long ago that this is what GAY stands for.

Can't see why not. My daughter is Lesbian and she's as good as anyone!

[parkie]

There are other words which appear to have changed their meaning completely. Notably the word 'wicked'.
Completely the opposite to what it was in my 'yoof'.

[bigwig]

I think the person who said it means Good As You is right.

[237SJ]

I heard the same from a gay guy at work. Someone was interviewed/questioned years ago on TV and he said "we are as good as you" and that`s where the term originated.

[deggers316]

could be when the stonewall riots occurred most mens bars were in gay street NY

[jno]

the secondary meaning, with some sort of sexual overtones, goes back a long way, at least to the 19th century, but nobody's quite sure how. If you see Cary Grant in a frilly nightie in Bringing Up Baby - I forget the exact contrivance that got him that way, but he announces "I just went gay all of a sudden". That was 1938.

[FredPuli43]

deggers, if it's from a street name, that may explain why there was a gay pub in Great Queen Street, London ! The serious answer, however, may be that the offensive 'queen' and the inoffensive 'gay' were only coincidentally associated with the particular streets.
Words do change their meanings or acquire new ones. for example,nobody today thinks of 'terrific' as meaning 'very frightening' or 'nice' as 'foolish'.