I’ve never encountered that word used with a homophobic intent, as far as I could tell. If you wanted to express that thought in my youth, other words beginning with B would be far more common. Naturally I found them as odious then as I would now.
What? Gay always meant happy, jolly etc. it was repurposed and gets weird if used by its original meaning.
My good man, how queer! Just means ‘quite odd’, sounds very old fashioned, but never ever meant anything else.
What a gay day!
Gay meant happy. Then it was used as a perjorative to infantilise homosexuals in part to justify medical and judicial intervention. It was later reclaimed and has its current usage.
I’ve never encountered that word used with a homophobic intent, as far as I could tell. If you wanted to express that thought in my youth, other words beginning with B would be far more common. Naturally I found them as odious then as I would now.
Doesn’t matter, the word is rooted in homophobic intent.
So is “gay”. Language evolves. Being a linguistic originalist would be a hard and eccentric hill to die on.
What? Gay always meant happy, jolly etc. it was repurposed and gets weird if used by its original meaning. My good man, how queer! Just means ‘quite odd’, sounds very old fashioned, but never ever meant anything else. What a gay day!
Gay meant happy. Then it was used as a perjorative to infantilise homosexuals in part to justify medical and judicial intervention. It was later reclaimed and has its current usage.
Well good I’m glad the UK has abandoned that principle, it was getting a bit pretentious.