What is ‘gay’?

This piece is not so much an argument as an extension of a thought, albeit articulated aloud. Nor is it my intention to contribute to that questionable piece of postmodern study, the scourge of many a humanities and social sciences department across both sides of the Atlantic, called ‘Queer Theory.’ Rather, a few incidents this past week have set in motion a concatenation of thoughts  in my head, that lead to one simple conclusion, the inevitable abnegation of the word, ‘gay’.

I don’t need to give the readers of this website a crash-course in the history of homosexuality. The distraction-filled online world will serve that purpose. However, we know that same-sex relationships have existed throughout the natural history of animal life. We also know that the term ‘homosexuality’ is a relatively new invention: the first known occurrence was in a German pamphlet in 1869. Similarly, the OED traces the appropriation of the word ‘gay’ to mean ‘homosexual’ only to the 1930s.

Other terms, such as ‘sodomy’, in senses pejorative and neutral, predated the terms ‘gay’ and ‘homosexuality’, and, needless to say, rather than referring to any specific identity, sodomy merely referred to the act of sexual intercourse between members who were not, strictly, of the opposite sex. I will not venture here far enough to ask what ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ mean.  Read More