Note from TellMeHowToDoThis.com
This video clearly doesn't show strategies for communicating with parents or family members on homosexuality. It is included on this site, however, to remind people that often, it's important to approach communication issues, which can be difficult, in a way which can incorporate humor. Laughter is, after all, the best medicine.
Gay
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gay is an adjective meaning "carefree", "happy", or "bright and showy"; however in modern usage, gay is a word usually used, as either a noun or adjective, to refer to same-sex sexual orientation — homosexuality.
"Gay", when used as an adjective, sometimes describes traits associated with both queer, or homosexual, men and women, culture or lifestyle. The term lesbian, on the other hand, is used exclusively in a gender-specific way to describe women who prefer sexual relations with other women.
The primary meaning of the word gay has changed dramatically during the 20th century—though the change evolved from earlier usages. It derives via the Old French gai, probably from a Germanic source. The word originally meant "carefree", "happy", or "bright and showy" and was very commonly used with this meaning in speech and literature. For example, the title of the 1938 ballet aptly named Gaîté Parisienne ("Parisian Gaiety"), a patchwork compiled from Jacques Offenbach's operettas, illustrates this connotation. In more recent times, starting in the mid 20th century, the word gay cannot usually be used in this former context without the expectation that one will assume a double entendre, or that the person using the term is out of touch with contemporary society.
The word started to acquire sexual connotations in the late 17th century, being used with meaning "addicted to pleasures and dissipations". This was by extension from the primary meaning of "carefree": implying "uninhibited by moral constraints". By the late nineteenth century the term "gay life" was a well-established euphemism for prostitution and other forms of extramarital sexual behaviour that were perceived as immoral.
The first name Gay is still occasionally encountered, usually as a female name although the spelling is often altered to Gaye. (795th most common in the United States, according to the 1990 US census). It was also used as a male first name. The first name of the popular male Irish television presenter Gabriel Byrne was always abbreviated as "Gay", as in the title of his radio show The Gay Byrne Show. It can also be used as a short form of the female name Gaynell and as a short form of the male names Gaylen and Gaylord. The "Gaiety" was also a common name for places of entertainment. One of Oscar Wilde's favourite venues in Dublin was the Gaiety Theatre, first appearing there in 1884.