How did the words "gay" and "straight" get to be opposites? Clarified

[uppityperson]

I posted this in the lounge but was hoping someone here could help too. Thank you.

Opposite words:
gay or happy or festive vs ungay or sad
straight vs unstraight or bent or crooked

Why is are the words gay vs straight? This bugs me. Why can't I say someone's neigborhood looks gay but must say "festive"? What does straight have to do with sex anyway? This all bugs me. Anyone help me out?

Edited to clarify that I mean the words, not homo/hetero, but the words that are used to signify them. Gay and straight are not opposite words so why are they used, how did they get this usage? That is what bothers me. Well, 1 thing that bothers me. I won't get into the classification system right now, just want to be annoyed by the words.

[NoSheep]

1. Because there seem to be a lot of folks who can only see in terms

of black and white. Good & bad. Happy or sad, etc. I think it's aptly named narrow-mindedness. Pity.

[uppityperson]

4. Yes, but gay & straight aren't opposites.

I understand that some people must simplify categorically everything, but straight and gay aren't opposite words. Why were they chosen to represent opposites?

[NoSheep]

8. Ah... I see your question now. Don't want to seem dry, but

they are just tags, symbols made of letters. And they represent what some folks seem to feel are opposite ends of a spectrum. The words could be completely different, but they've garnered cultural significance and those are the ones we use. Certainly, language evolves or doesn't, along with culture. One does not necessarily choose a word to describe something just because it is the opposite of something else. Things get tagged and then they are compared. That's the way I see it working. We should look at the origins of the words in context. That could be an interesting study. When did the term "straight" come to signify one who only has sex with members of the opposite sex, etc.

[uppityperson]

12. Exaclty. How did these words evolve to mean for sex?

Why is sex with same sex "gay" and sex with opposite sex "straight"? Gays dress more brightly and are flaunting it where straights keep to the straight and narrow? I don't know but the terms bother me and wondering if anyone knows. By opposite I mean, as you say, "And they represent what some folks seem to feel are opposite ends of a spectrum". Why are they used to designate people "at opposite ends"?

[Maraya1969]

2. The really weird thing is there are "gay men" and then "lesbians"

Even the new acronym is GLBT last time I looked. It stands for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered. Maybe we should just lump it all together under:

HUMAN BEING

[hlthe2b]

3. think of the folks named Gay

which I think had been somewhat unisex years ago...(pardon the pun)

[Maraya1969]

5. There origin of the word "gay" according to this site

The word homosexual is very scientific and clinical sounding, and many people who are attracted to the same sex in Britain and other English-speaking cultures prefer to use the word gay or lesbian. The word gay, which in English means happy, bright and colourful, has been used to describe homosexual people for more than a century, and is in common use today. Originally it started off as a derogatory term; in Victorian England a 'gay girl' was a euphemism for a prostitute (whose dress and make-up would be garishly 'gay'). Homosexuals were considered to be just as sinful and socially unacceptable. Since the 1960s it has been used by homosexual people to describe themselves. Another benefit of its use is that it can be used in a wider context; the word homosexual only refers to sex whereas the words gay and lesbian can be used to describe aspects of culture such as gay literature, lesbian politics, etc. Gay people in the gay community rarely use the word homosexual.

http://www.gaymidlands.org/facts.html

[NoSheep]

9. Good post.

[tuvor]

6. If you wanna say "gay" to mean "festive," say "gay".

Use it or lose it. Even where the English language is concerned.

[mondo joe]

7. You live in a binary culture. Get used to it.

[MuseRider]

10. I don't know

but I refuse to use the term "straight". It implies that someone who is not straight is crooked. Language use is so important, this makes gay seem bad. Anything that takes away from the idea of the goodness of a group of people is wrong so I just do not use it.

I can't answer your question but it seems to me that it most likely came from a group who thinks homosexuality is wrong. I could be all wrong about that though, just my thought.

[mitchtv]

13. I neverspell it Straight, but perfer

Strate, or if you prefer Strait, as in a narrowing.

[MuseRider]

16. Still it sounds the same

when speaking and that bothers me a lot. I could certainly write it that way but I think not.

[uppityperson]

14. Words have connotations and this is 1 reason I get annoyed.

Throwing a log on the fire when a bunch of my teen's friends were over and the issue of "faggot" came up. They were appalled when told of burning homosexuals led to this term.

[MuseRider]

15. Kids use words

like that and it just kills me. My boys did when in High School. They knew their Uncle had been a gay man and they loved him totally, they knew my best friend is a gay man and they really like him to. It took a while for them to understand the use of words in the real world. They went to a High School that was very diverse and the words these kids used for each other would make me blush. They did know better, they found out how angry it made me, they grew up and learned better but it was a very tough phase for me. I rarely had to punish them for doing bad things but I spent a good deal of time dealing with this kind of stuff.

[uppityperson]

19. Mine used "that's so gay" the other day.

I only had to turn and look at him to have him respond "it's just a word!" My answer "OK dumbass. That's just a word too. You need to find a different one".

[MuseRider]

21. GREAT response!

I loved almost every phase my kids went through but that one. It was the most difficult of all for me to deal with and once they found out how they could push my buttons using those words they would use them. Of course when they did it was supposedly "good natured" but I was never able to take it that way. I thank god they have grown out of that.

[im10ashus]

11. I believe they used to call us gay people "bent"

Hence the opposite of straight.

[NMMNG]

23. I believe calling gays "bent" is/was a UK/England thing

That may be where calling heteros "straight" eventually came from. If homosexuals were "bent" then heterosexuals were the opposite, or "straight".

[Paranoid Pessimist]

17. I'm not predominantly gay but I hate being called "straight"

Back when hippies were in flower, a "straight" person was what once was referred to, by earlier bohemians, as a "square." I certainly was never that and to this day, I don't like being called "straight."

I think I'm kinky.

[uppityperson]

18. We're all human.

welcome to DU Paranoid Pessimist. Speaking of words and terms, I wonder what would happen if a paranoid pessimist and an uppityperson got together?

[newyawker99]

24. Hi Paranoid Pessimist!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[LeftyMom]

20. I don't care for "straight"

because it's heteronormative and implies that other orientations and preferences are somehow deviant.

I also don't care for your assertion that the terms gay and straight are opposites, because it implies to me that those are the primary or only legitimate options. What about bisexuals, who according to some researchers make up the majority of the population, or asexual people? If we bring gender identity differences in this whole matter of human sexuality gets even more complicated. Again, I find this idea that the world can be divided into gay people and hetero people exclusionary and heteronormative.

So really, I can't answer your question, as I think it's based on flawed assumptions about the nature of human sexuality.

[uppityperson]

22. I am not passing judgement but wondering simplified.

I do not always write my thoughts perfectly in my original post, and clarify as I go along. Please realize that I am not passing judgement on anyone but wondering about word etiology. Please check out the clarification in posts 8 and 12 above.

8. Nosheep says "And they represent what some folks seem to feel are opposite ends of a spectrum."
12. I agree and clarify "By opposite I mean, as you say, "And they represent what some folks seem to feel are opposite ends of a spectrum". "

I am not passing judgement on the terms "straight" or "gay". I am just wondering about the etiology of these words.

There are lots of options, lots of shades of grey. I am sorry if you take my saying gay and straight are opposites to mean that they are the only legitimate options as this is not what I am meaning. However, they are different, and this is why I am wondering how they got to be "gay" and "straight". I am NOT attempting to divide the world up into 2 camps of sexuality, but am wondering how these words got to mean these 2 differing ways of being, based on how some people feel they are opposite ends of a spectrum. I am limiting my wondering, simplifying, to these 2 orientations and words. I am not offering any value judgements otherwise but wondering about this. That is all.

I am sorry if you take offense at this. None is meant.