“That’s gay.”

The use of the word gay in a negative connotation has been normalized, and only recently has it become socially unacceptable. But where did it start, and why do people keep saying it?

I was in the gym lifting weights when I overheard a guy say to another guy, “why is your form so gay?” I was immediately in disbelief as I had not heard someone use gay as an insult or negative connotation in a long time. I then looked over at the guys, and the ones not lifting were all laughing as the guy lifting tried to fix his form. They continued lifting as if nothing was wrong with what one of them said.

Being a homosexual has been proclaimed as wrong or sinful throughout history in different cultures. In the late-1980s, gay became an insult for kids to use on the playground for someone doing something stupid or feminine. Professor Nunberg on NPR said, “Well, I think as kids become aware that this is not simply a word for stupid but also the name of a particular sexual orientation, they can’t help but make that connection and realize that in some way there is an association of these properties with gay people. And in a way, what it does -it’s an interesting development linguistically because unlike insults that use the old fashion pejorative and disparaging names for groups, this one takes what had become the official positive name for their group but invests it with all of the negative stereotypes that were associated with that group and then broadens it. Hence, it just means stupid or lame.” So it is a tactical word association to make kids at a young age think that being gay is a bad thing. How did this start, and why do we use kids to support our own beliefs?