Gay / Homosexual

A person who experiences emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attraction primarily or exclusively to people of the same or a similar gender. Historically applied to men attracted to men; increasingly used as a broader umbrella by people of any gender, though many women prefer "lesbian." Homosexual is the clinical/medical term; gay is the widely preferred community term.

The word gay carried its modern meaning by at least the 1920s-1930s in underground slang. It became widely used publicly from the 1960s onward, deliberately adopted by activists as a positive, self-chosen alternative to the clinical "homosexual." The word homosexual was coined by Karl-Maria Kertbeny in 1868-1869.

• Ancient Greece - Male same-sex relationships were culturally normative in many city-states; Plato's Symposium (c. 385 BCE) offers the foundational Western philosophical treatment of same-sex love
• 1868-1869 - Karl-Maria Kertbeny coins "homosexual" and "heterosexual"
• 1897 - Magnus Hirschfeld founds the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee in Berlin - the first gay rights organization in the world
• 1969 - Stonewall Uprising; the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement crystallizes
• 1973 - APA removes homosexuality from the DSM
• 1978 - Gilbert Baker designs the original Rainbow Flag
• 1981 - First CDC reports of the illness that became the documented AIDS crisis
• 2003 - Lawrence v. Texas strikes down remaining US sodomy laws
• 2015 - Obergefell v. Hodges establishes nationwide US marriage equality

• "Gay men are predatory toward children." One of the oldest and most harmful anti-gay myths, with no empirical basis. Research consistently shows the overwhelming majority of child sexual abuse is perpetrated by heterosexual men.
• "Gay men are effeminate." Gay men span every possible range of gender expression.
• "Homosexuality is unnatural." It is documented in hundreds of animal species. Every major scientific organization affirms it as a normal human variation.

• Plato (c. 428-348 BCE) - Philosopher; Symposium explores same-sex love (likely bisexual by modern terms)
• Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) - Renaissance polymath; prosecuted for sodomy in Florence 1476 (retrospectively identified)
• Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) - Irish playwright and poet; tried and imprisoned for "gross indecency" 1895; The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Importance of Being Earnest
• Alan Turing (1912-1954) - British mathematician; cracked Enigma code in WWII; chemically castrated by the UK government for homosexuality 1952; died 1954 (probable suicide); pardoned posthumously 2013
• Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935) - Physician; founded first gay rights organization (1897) and Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (1919); pioneered the science of sexuality
• James Baldwin (1924-1987) - Black American novelist and essayist; Giovanni's Room (1956), Another Country (1962); civil rights activist
• Harvey Milk (1930-1978) - First openly gay elected official in California; assassinated November 27, 1978; posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2009)
• Bayard Rustin (1912-1987) - Black gay civil rights organizer; architect of the 1963 March on Washington; long marginalized within the movement due to his homosexuality; posthumously awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom (2013)
• Gilbert Baker (1951-2017) - Artist and activist; designed the Rainbow Flag (1978)
• Larry Kramer (1935-2020) - Playwright and activist; co-founded GMHC and ACT UP; wrote The Normal Heart
• RuPaul (1960-) - Drag performer; creator of RuPaul's Drag Race; most globally recognized drag entertainer