The use of the word gayFollow

I bought this up in another thread but really, why is it fine to group all homosexuals together and say a phrase "the gays", "a gay"? It seems to be an American turn of phrase to use such expression.

We do not say "The hetrosexuals" or "a hetrosexual". We do not class ourselves by other sexual preferences, so why is being gay so special? I realise that Prop 8 has bought the issue of gay marraige to the forefront and my own opinions are known there (could not care less, why are irrational small minded people who worship an invisible being in the sky allowed to stop it?).
I just cannot understand wishing to be grouped by a sexuality, the same as I cannot understand (for example) being grouped by my choice of breakfast.

So could someone please explain to me why it is fine in America to refer to people who are gay as a collective "the gays" and why it is okay to refer to "a gay". I say this as a confused "a single", "a hetrosexual" woman who does not understand Yankish very well.

You're fucking gay.

The language of sexual identity and expression is in a state of flux and what may be acceptable in one circle, isn't in another, and the same goes from day to day. In fact, in most of the country and in research literature, we don't even refer to gay women as "gay", there are gay men and there are lesbians. The word homosexual is even being phased out. This is why you'll see longer and longer acronyms for gay rights groups, such as GLBTTQQA, haha.

Nexa

In the distant past, no one said "Caucasian" in Britain, because non-Caucasians were so bloody rare. Now it's relevant to some conversations to make the distinction. "You look so striking in that white underwear. I envy you. I'm Caucasion, white underwear makes me look like my Grandmother."

In the same way, Homosexuality was such a taboo that Homosexuals just didn't exist, as far as the public was concerned. So there was no reason to make the distinction. Everyone was assumed to be Heterosexual. Now there's a reason to make the distinction. It's not a big deal, but it's real. "My cousin's gay, and there's just no one he can date at high school. He's pretty lonely. I hope he meets someone at Uni."

For people who aren't homophobic there's nothing derogatory about being gay, in comparison to being straight, the same way as there's nothing derogatory about being single compared to being partnered, being a female as against being a male, being a parent against being childless, being Caucasian against being Asian/African descended/whatever, being an atheist against being Catholic/Muslim/Bhuddist/whatever. But all these distinctions are useful and meaningful distinctions to make when talking about or planning social policy, or whenever else they're relevant.

"We should have a baby-change room in the new museum, for the parents"

"There are a lot of Muslim immigrants in this suburb, the local school's canteen should have a decent range of healthy halal food, so everyone can eat it."

"A lot of teenagers who have been kicked out of home for being gay are congregating in the inner city squats. We should make sure we send a suitably empathetic and approachable case worker who might have some success in reconciling them to their families. Failing that, blah de blah..."

I prefer to use the word, *****, FWIW. It's so much more encompassing.

Let's call everyone "The ******."

Btw, that includes transgressive heterosexuals.

Edited, Dec 10th 2008 8:02am by Annabella

Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Transexual, *****, Questioning, and Allies (though Asexual could certainly add another "A"). Many campuses are opting to stop changing their campus organization names by picking something other than an acronym. A few years ago we voted to change the name of our GLBT resource center to the "Rainbow Resource Center" to cover all the bases and reflect an openness to even those affiliations which may or may not have a name.

Nexa

It's shorter than saying "people who prefer partners of the same sex".

True, but it also means "rubbish", and what could be worse than that?

Lots of things, I suppose, but still.

I also used to work with a group that linked together pan/bisexual, transgender, transsexual, intersexual and other gender variant types. I bet you could stick a whole bunch of other letters in there but really, as Nexa alluded to, it's easier to rename it to accommodate people who are unnamed and unclassified.

Also, if you have too many letters, it starts sounding really gay.

Edited, Dec 10th 2008 9:32am by Annabella

See? I'm totally hip.

*******

Anna, why *****? It seems more insulting really, like I'm doing something wrong or strange. It's like calling someone a deviant.

Is this thread part of the larger gay agenda?