The history of 'Gay' expression

Yes, we all know that is a slang but believe it or not it doesn't seem to have any other origin than the word 'gay'. Simply happy, euphoric, and loving the very moment of life. Now that is a very gay picture of a 'gay'. I wish that was true. Suicide is five times more common in gay males than the heterosexual counterparts. That is for the 'gay' being a misleading nomenclature.

Technically, 'gay' has a probable origin in the French word 'gai'. But, before coming to English it did some literary act in German. But, all in all, it meant happiness when it came to English. In fact it was a pretty warm expression for happiness until 1950s and later. But, before that gay was literary perceived by some authors an depicted as a 'prohibited' happiness; something that one was pathologically addicted to. So, soon euphemistically gay was sexualized to mean sexual happiness as in 'forbidden' sense and it was so considered that a 'gay' man meant a lecher (womanizer) , 'gay' woman meant a prostitute and a 'gay' house meant a brothel.

It is not known for certain as to how and why was the word taken to mean a homosexual. Strange though, the first literary instance came with Gertrude Stein's Miss Furr & Miss Skeene (1922) which depicted 'female' homosexual interests as

"They were ...gay, they learned little things that are things in being gay, ... they were quite regularly gay."

Now that was a nasty expression but even here it only meant happiness but, it was taken for a colloquial replacement and soon it was synonymous with homosexual. But, a more important reason for it to be so popular is the pejorative expression 'Queer' which is considered to be derogatory. As the world identified the phenomenon called homosexuality, people world over sympathized and wanted a replacement for 'queer'. Today, even 'gay' is considered to be 'discriminatory'. Phew, we have come a great way from 'derogation' to 'discrimination'.

Happy republic day!

Indian gays and non-gays.

Loveall.