when did homosexuals start calling themselves gay?
963127
I don't know I am homosexual but I do not identify as gay.
746033
The dictionary is out-dated!\nThe bible was written as a historical account of that time\nby men who had their own ideas of how life should be.\nIf we did not have the bible to quote from, then what would\nour arguments against gays and lesbians be?\nOr for that matter - anyone that does not fit into the \ncategories that the bible denounces.\nYes, it is time that the laws on marriage are changed.\n\nNo one likes to be punished (biblical or otherwise)\nfor their decisions and mistakes!
498689
Wow. That is a loaded question. I would say it started way back in the beginning of the history of men and was part of the physical temptations Satan and his fallen angels used to try to persuade people to stop following God's commandments. I have read that it was also part of the reason the world was destroyed by flood, and Noah and his family (his sons had one wife each) had to start over on re-populating the earth. That's all I will say about this subject, because I don't want to get a lot of angry messages from people who think differently. I'm not a "homophobe," I just see things for what they are, and everyone is a child of God. Have a happy day.
1095589
There is no real answer for that question.\n\nHomosexuality has been around for a very long time but since the 1800s it has been considered taboo and often becomes hidden. Most likely the majority of the world is heterosexual with a large portion of the remainder being bisexual. I have never met a homosexual in my life, all of my "homosexual" friends have been in fact bisexual.
916761
No one "becomes" gay. Sexual identity is determined by genetics, not personal preference. Being gay does not mean only sleeping with someone of the same sex, but loving them. Think about the way a man loves a woman, and why he doesn't love his best friend the same way. Being gay is the same thing, only with different genders. A person who is gay goes through puberty and realizes they have an attraction for the same sex, yet many gays state that they sensed they were "different" since they were children as young as five. Sometimes, people change their preference, but it is due to brain chemistry and not outside forces (this is why praying and porn do not work to change sexual identity.)\nMany straight men and women are afraid watching a gay film or hanging around gays will make them gay, but it's not true. Otherwise, a gay could become straight by hanging around straight people!
543762
I'm not sure... I was the victim of a gay bashing on Christmas Morning, 2005. And since I live in western Nebraska, I really was not sure what to do. If I had made a stink out of it and got the police involved, I more than likely would have been subjected to it again. Maybe gay bashing is done by those who are too chicken shite to admit they really are gay, so they hate those of us who are out of the closet and fear that we will drag them kicking and screaming into the world of Gayness. lol.
451114
Religion, religion, religion. The word 'GAY' is and always will be a word that gets them ranting. Sad but true.
1032538
Our society today is so used to hating on people and attacking them.  If someone ask a gay question then everyone assumes they are gay. Everyone just needs to take a Valium and chill the fuck out.
342171
Sexual customs have varied greatly over time and from one region to another. These, as well as the orientation of particular pre-contemporary figures continue to be studied. Modern Western gay culture, largely a product of 19th century psychology as well as the years of post-Stonewall Gay Liberation, is a relatively recent manifestation of same-sex desire. It is generally not applicable as a standard when investigating same-gender sex and historical opinions and beliefs held by other people.\n\nIt is generally accepted that the lives of historical figures such as Socrates, Lord Byron, Edward II, Hadrian, Julius Caesar, Michelangelo, Donatello and Christopher Marlowe included or were centred upon love and sexual relationships with people of their own gender. Terms such as gay or bisexual have been applied to them, but many regard this as risking the anachronistic introduction of a contemporary construction of sexuality foreign to their times.[citation needed] Variations from modern standards of beauty, social roles, sexual positions, and age disparities are of such magnitude so as to render meaningless any projection of modern roles onto historical personages. This does not mean, however, that people in the past experienced the physical phenomenon of homosexual attraction any differently than people experience it today.\n\nWhile some premodern societies did not employ categories fully comparable to the modern homosexual or heterosexual dichotomy, this does not demonstrate that the polarity is not applicable to those societies. A common thread of constructionist argument is that no one in antiquity or the Middle Ages experienced homosexuality as an exclusive, permanent, or defining mode of sexuality. John Boswell has criticised this argument by citing ancient Greek writings by Plato, which he says indicate knowledge of exclusive homosexuality.[citation needed]Michel Foucault and historians following his line of thought have argued that the homosexual is a modern invention, a social construct of the last 100 years.[citation needed] While true of homosexuality as a scientific or psychological category, there are examples from earlier ages of those viewing their sexuality as a part of a human identity and not merely a sexual act. [citation needed] One cited example is the 16th century Italian artist Giovanni Antonio Bazzi who adopted the nickname "Sodoma", which is viewed by Louis Crompton as something analogous to the modern gay identity.\n\n\nThe earliest western documents (in the form of literary works, art objects, as well as mythographic materials) concerning same-sex relationships are derived from Ancient Greece. They depict a world in which relationships with women and relationships with youths were the essential foundation of a normal man's love life. Same-sex relationships were a social institution variously constructed over time and from one city to another. (See Pederasty) The practice, a system of relationships between an adult male and an adolescent coming of age, was often valued for its pedagogic benefits and as a means of population control, and occasionally blamed for causing disorder. Plato praised its benefits in his early writings, but in his late works proposed its prohibition, laying out a strategy which uncannily predicts the path by which same-sex love was eventually driven underground. (See Philosophy of Greek pederasty)\n\nThe Roman emperor Theodosius decreed a law, on August 6th, 390, condemning passive homosexuals to be burned at the stake. Justinian, towards the end of his reign, expanded the proscription to the active partner as well (in 558) warning that such conduct can lead to the destruction of cities through the "wrath of God." Notwithstanding these regulations, taxes on homosexual boy brothels continued to be collected until the end of the reign of Anastasius I in 518.\n\nDuring the Renaissance, cities in northern Italy, Florence and Venice in particular, were renowned for
384636
According to most scientists and psychologist, being gay is physiological verses psychological. There is a part of the brain called the hypothamalus. In heterosexual men this gland is larger than a heterosexual woman’s which is much smaller in size. Recent studies of autopsies performed on gays reveal the size of hypothamalus’ of homosexuals (both male and female) aren’t as large as a heterosexual male or as small as a heterosexual female.\n\nHomosexuality occurs naturally in most species of animals.\n\nForgoing the physical causes of homosexuality, socialization, environment and personal beliefs often have an influence on whether a person live a gay or straight life. For instance, a person who believes they may be gay might suppress those feelings if they are raised in an environment where homosexuality is considered taboo and self expression is censored. On the other hand, a person with homosexual tendencies may be more willing to explore those feelings if raised in an environment which encourages expression and self individualism.\n\nSince our sexuality doesn’t develop until long after birth, I don’t see how anyone can be born heterosexual or homosexual. \n\nSome uninformed individuals claim homosexuality is a choice. The question to those people would be, “Did you have to choose to be straight.” The answer will almost always be, “Hell no!” Just as a heterosexual could no more “choose” to be gay, a homosexual would have a difficult time choosing to be straight.\n\nAs for religious arguments, the passages in Genesis merely explain heterosexual relationships and does not condemn or even speak to homosexual acts. The only direct mention of homosexuality in the Bible can be found in the Old Testament under Leviticus along with the sins of wearing woven clothing (cotton), eating shell fish, shaving, and not allowing women to preach the word of God, amongst other forgotten sins. These sins were made non-sins by the words of Jesus. That is why good “Christians” can shave, while wearing their cotton briefs and eat oyster without having to worry about going to Hell.\n\nIn the New Testament, many newer interpretations claim that the rapists who came to Lot’s house were gay, but they were rapists, which rape is a sin. In another passage the words used to describe male prostitutes has been translated into “homosexuals” by watered down modern day Bibles. Prostitution is a sin, but at the time, there was no homosexual culture to condemn.\n\nThe most prolific argument against Biblical condemnation of homosexuals came from Jesus who was to be God’s final word on the subject. When given the opportunity to condemn homosexual behavior, He did not.\n\nWhen you see the word “homosexual’ in a Bible understand there was no word to describe homosexuality at the time of the writing of the Bible. Go to the King James Version and read the same passages. Those translations of those same words pertain only to male prostitution and rapists, which are both sins.\n\nLastly, many lost Christians say the Bible says intercourse is for the purpose of reproduction only and the only reason man was put on this earth was to reproduce. Well I can’t find one Christian who says they only have intercourse for the purpose of reproduction. As for the misnomer man was put on this earth for the sole purpose of reproduction, what about people who for one reason or another cannot reproduce? Are they all going to hell? If all of the world’s trees produced fruit, the fruit would lay rotting on the ground.
916984
YES, i am personally homosexual, and i find it VERY insulting that homosexuals are put into the same group as transgendered, transgendered are psychologically messed up, they have a disease, homosexuals are men and love being man and love being men that love men and love loving men as men.
19769
The long answer:\n\nGay was a term that was appropriated by homosexual people in the 1970's too mean homo.  They wanted a word that had positive connotations because they wanted to remove the stigma that was associated with being a homosexual. \n\nQueer was a word used by homophobic people to sander homosexuals.  It originally meant strange, odd, or out of place, but was taken and used to specifically attack homosexual individuals in the same way that the N-word was used to attack African Americans.  In the mid-late '90s queer was appropriated by gays who were looking to remove the stigma associated with the word, much the same way black people (and many other minorities) have appropriated the N-word, and use it in everyday speech to remove some of the power that is associated with it.\n\nThe idea is this.  If I use the word queer in my everyday life to describe myself, some bigoted straight white guy who tries to use the word to hurt me fails miserably.  If, however, it's a word that has a deep stigma, a word that only he is privileged enough to use when he's verbally attacking me, the word holds much more power, and the attack is far more potent.  If we minorities, whether we be gay, black, or whatever, decide to take those words back and own them ourselves, we take much of the power away from their previous "owners".\n\n\nThe short answer:\n\nThey're spelled differently.  I use them both interchangeably to describe myself if people ask...
780908
I think it's just that now it's so much easier for people to actually come out and say to people "Hey.. I'm gay!" but the problem with that is that it also makes it easier for people to decide to be gay because it's so widely accpeted. I'm not saying it's a bad thing at all.. all it means is that there are alot more gay people these days than before.\nHowever, there is a side to it where some people think it's 'cool' or 'in' to pretend to be bi.. such as Britney Spears kissing Madonna and hinting that she may be bi.. or whatever.. people like that annoy me and there are alot more people like that in society because they think it's 'hot.' \n\nI hope this answers your question <3
481399
Why are we always trying to label ourselves as one thing or another. Other than for marketing purposes, there is no reason to believe that the word homosexual means anything other than an action. It should not be a description of a person. We are far too complex to fall in these types of categories. People have tendencies for many things. Accept who you are and fill your life with satisfaction. Society has created categories for people. My opinion is that there is no one category for me.....gay, religion, or anything like that. \n\nJust a thought, \nI'm Joe
235132
because it is unnatural , and you can't say it has been around as long as heterosexuality, if you read the history you will find that it came around when the sexual cantact between men and women was restricted by religion. If people like you don't encurage it and it was punishable by law, there would be no more gay people around.
1118476
Who said we hate homosexuals?
752804
I've noticed this, too. Becoming emotionally involved in relationships is not cool anymore. It's cool to be detached. Add this to the fact that many people are afraid of being labeled "gay" if they display normal human affection, and you've got yourself a society that prides itself on its uninvolvement.