Gay Pupils Insulted By Homophobic Phrases

[mushroom25]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/24984781

the word "Gay", from the French "gai", meaning joyful or bright and showy, was increasingly appropriated in the last century to mean a particular lifestyle associated with orientation. Now it's been appropriated by others to mean something else.

Language is constantly evolving; is this something that the LGBTI community needs to "get over", or is the word "gay" now irrevocably locked to its 20th century meaning?

[andy-hughes]

I think that most gay people grow up learning to accept that as a minority which is feared and misunderstood, there is going to be an element of unpleasantness throughout their daily lives.

In the scheme of things, the mis-use of the term 'gay' is not likely to feature highly on the list of things they will have to deal with.

It should be lumped in with the general malaise of ignorant stupidity that informs much of our modern soceity - and the cost of this campaign should be directed into wider areas of support for gay people.

[jno]

Now it's been appropriated by others to mean something else.

Specifically, to be an insult.

[davetuc]

Anything that Stonewall come up with is usually laughable. They tried to ban Arsenal fans from carrying £20 notes with Ashley Cole's face instead of the queen, (meant as a criticism of his greed), but they thought it was implying he was a 'queen'! Peter Tatchell, please disappear somewhere.

[Kromovaracun]

I thought Peter Tatchell was with Outrage, not Stonewall.

[tonyav]

Where have they had the figures from of how many gay pupils there are, has there been a national questionnaire asking if they ( pupils ) are gay or not.

[Mamyalynne]

Picking up on one or two key phrases is overkill and a misfire in my opinion, a general respect for everyone regardless of any differences perceived is the way to go.

School will always mean running the gauntlet to a point, speccy,skinny,swotty (ok I grew out of the last one) hurts a bit but you harden to it.

Making any group a 'special' case does them no favours, rather the opposite.

[youngmafbog]

//a minority which is feared and misunderstood//

No, that is not totally true is it. Many people simply dont like it. Neither do they like being continually bombarded with this sort of thing. They dont want enlightenment they just want to get on with their lives and most dont care what orientation you are unless you are trying to push you agenda like Stonewall continually does.

This sort of thing does no good to the average joe homosexual, in fact quite the reverse.

[jomifl]

There used to be lots of insulting terms used to specify homosexuals and lesbians, now they appear to have been condensed into the word 'gay' which was coined by homosexuals and lesbians as a label for their gender identity. So we now have only on word it is still an insult. Time for the gays to think up another word that doesn't have so much baggage attached.

[jackthehat]

Gay has meant homosexual for far longer than homosexual has meant Gay...

[jomifl]

Too subtle for me jack...explain please?

[anotheoldgit]

/// Now it's been appropriated by others to mean something else. ///

The word is not 'appropriated' but 'hijacked'.

[jackthehat]

Many people assume that the word 'Gay' has been recently (mis)appropriated to mean Homosexual.

The word 'Homosexual' itself was only coined in the mid-1800s'; and 'Gay' had acquired many different (mainly sexual connotations) in the centuries prior to that.

[jim360]

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

Interesting reading. I thought that gay was innocent until the 1950s or so. Apparently, I couldn't be more wrong.

[Baldric]

Calm down dears,
It's only a passing ph(r)ase!

[anotheoldgit]

/// The word may have started to acquire associations of immorality as early as the 14th century, and 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 a prostitute, a gay man a womanizer and a gay house a brothel. ///

[FredPuli43]

That would explain why the alley cat, mehitabel, who has ideas and fantasies above her station, and an imaginative memory to boot, addresses archy, the cockroach, in affected French. She says of herself "Toujours gai, archy, toujours gai ". If she described herself as gay, people might talk .

The names are in lower case because archy, being a cockroach, cannot operate the shift key when typing his account of their friendship.[archy and mehitabel, by Don Marquis. An old but amusing read]

[sp1814]

mushroom25

Actually, the word gay has changed meaning several times. Originally, I believe it referred to a female prostitute, and then in the 17th century it changed meaning again, to mean a man who consorted with prostitutes - then it changed meaning again to mean (ironically, given today's meaning) a man who had lots of sex with a lot of different women.

And then in the 19th century it changed meaning again (to mean 'happy and carefree').

[sp1814]

I suspect this issue will be temporary.

It's unfortunate that kids have chosen this word to mean something negative, but then again - kids of today have no idea why kids of my generation would have used the word 'joey' to indicate someone who was 'less than all there'.

The word 'joey' has now lost that connotation - and hopefully so will 'gay' as a negative stereotype.

[sp1814]

youngmafbog

You wrote:

"Many people simply dont like it. Neither do they like being continually bombarded with this sort of thing. They dont want enlightenment they just want to get on with their lives and most dont care what orientation you are unless you are trying to push you agenda like Stonewall continually does."

Does that include the constant bombardment of heterosexuality we see daily on soap operas, programmes such as Blind Date and Take Me Out?

And not to mention videos by Rihanna, Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke - cavorting with the opposite sex all the time...and let's not forget all the rampant straight promotion on Geordie Shore, Jersey Shore, Towie, Made In Chelsea etc etc.

And straight weddings / engagement parties / stag dos / hen nights!

Okay - we get it...you're heterosexual...why do you have to tell us all about it all the time...