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periodic reminder: the modern usage of "gay" comes to us via a ~19th C euphemism for things related to sex work – think "happy ending". a "gay house" was a brothel, someone who was "gay" was a sex worker of any gender.
why is this significant?
1) it's commonly believed that "gay" as a community term has always had a wholly positive meaning, unlike terms like "queer". but that's not the case – it was a euphemism for decadence, dissolution, hedonism.
1) it's commonly believed that "gay" as a community term has always had a wholly positive meaning, unlike terms like "queer". but that's not the case – it was a euphemism for decadence, dissolution, hedonism.
2) it reminds us there has been a strong connection between gay and sex worker communities since before gay identity as it currently exists. the male client of a male sex worker was not always considered gay, but the worker was – because of their job, not their sexual preference.
the 19th c euphemistic meaning of "gay" to mean "happy to the point of decadence" survives in an unexpected place – dog breeding standards. "gay tail" is a flaw where the dog's tail is so high it begins to curl over the back (where this is not the breed standard).
have a look at use of the phrase "gay house" in Australian newspaper archives. up until about 1920 it predominantly means "brothel".
https://trove.nla.gov.au/search/category/newspapers?keyword=%22gay%20house%22
https://trove.nla.gov.au/search/category/newspapers?keyword=%22gay%20house%22
if you're looking for a word for (any group of) LGBTQ+ people in English, that's in wide use, with a long history, with no history as a slur or a euphemism or pathologisation – you're not going to find it, because that's not how people talked about us.
please do not rely on the dictionary definition of a word when making assertions about its meaning in LGBTQ+ culture and history lol
