What does gay mean?
Do you know what it means? That promising word so often used in the rainbow community? Today a man is gay if he is attracted to the same sex. Often used negatively, yet worn with full pride and conviction by gay men and lesbians. Because gay is far more than love for the same sex, even if that love is already the highest of all feelings.
If you look at the etymological meaning of the word, it originally meant carefree and cheerful ... and that is exactly how gay men and lesbians carry this word in their hearts.
What else is there to say about this little word with a big impact?
- value-neutral
- male and female
- since the 17th century
- Change of meaning
What does gay mean? This is a question we want to ask ourselves, and should. In German it is translated as "schwul". The negative connotation of a few years ago has changed, and today the term is used in a value-neutral way, often depending on the situation. Sometimes teasing, sometimes flirtatious.
The term entered the gay scene through Stonewall. That took away its ambivalence, and now you can use gay cheerfully and happily for every situation in life. Internationally, too, "what is gay?" has become an established question. The term stands for rainbow community organizations (LGBT, ILGA, GLF) as well as for the Gay Agenda. What else is gay? In youth slang the term was often used as a negative judgment to describe something the speaker finds uncool, boring or whiny. Going a bit further back in history, if you ask what gay means, you learn that in Low German the corresponding word was used in the 17th century to mean "oppressively hot". The word came into High German a century later, and its meaning was reversed there. Since then, "schwul" has been associated more with cool than with warm. Through Rotwelsch (German underworld slang)
and the expression "warmer Bruder" ("warm brother"), the term gay finally found its way into the gay scene. What does gay mean? We keep investigating.
What does gay mean, and what do others say about it
What does gay mean? A simple question that comes with many answers. Skinner's hypothesis, that the skin of homosexuals is warmer than that of heterosexuals, is very amusing and lively. What Storfer says about the meaning of gay is interesting as well. Storfer justifies the use of the term by arguing that gay men behave more openly, and therefore more warmly, toward other men than heterosexual men do. This gives the term gay another layer of meaning: the level of social interaction and communication between people of the same and different sexes. So what does gay mean? Plenty. Everything and nothing. It is a feeling and a way of life.
- different meanings
- not just gay men
- lesbian
- cheerful
- many possibilities
If you look at the etymological meaning of the word, it originally meant carefree and cheerful ... and that is exactly how gay men and lesbians carry this word in their hearts.