It has been argued that gay in the sense “awkward, stupid, or bad” is independent of the sexual sense, and therefore not homophobic. How do gays feel about this? But usage as a singular noun is usually perceived as insulting. Today, the noun often designates only gay men and is usually used as a collective plural: gays and lesbians. After World War II, as social attitudes toward sexuality began to change, gay was applied openly by gay men to themselves, first as an adjective and later as a noun. This sexual world included gay men too, and gay as an adjective in the sexual meaning goes back at least to the late 1930s. A gay woman was a prostitute, a gay man a womanizer, a gay house a brothel. The word gay has had various senses dealing with sexual conduct since the 17th century. The sexual orientation meaning of the word gay has become so predominant that people hesitate to use the term in its original senses of “merry, lively” and “bright or showy.” But the word's association with sexuality is not new.
