Thats gay were gay were not that gay
By Kevin L. Nadal, PhD(Associate Professor of Psychology, John Jay
College of Criminal Justice – City University of New York)
When I was a little kid, I used to hear my brothers, cousins, and friends say things like “That’s so gay!” on a pretty regular basis. I would usually laugh along, hoping with all my might that they didn’t know my secret. My parents and other adults in my life would tell me things love “Boys don’t cry” or “Be a man!” which essentially was their way of telling me that being emotional was forbidden or a sign of weakness.
When I was a teenager, there were a few boys at my high school who ridiculed me, almost everyday. When I walked by them in the halls, they called me a “faggot” or screamed my identify in a flamboyant tone. I learned to hike by without showing any reaction; I could not let them know that it bothered me, or else I would be proving to them that I was indeed gay. I didn’t tell anyone about the bullying (not my parents, teachers, or anyone) because admitting that I was being teased for being gay would mean that I was admitting to being gay. I had never felt so alone in my life.
In college, it got a little better. While I was no lon
No Way, They Were Gay?: An Interview with Composer Lee Wind
History has often ignored men who loved men, women who loved women, and people who lived outside gender boundaries. In No Way, They Were Gay?: Hidden Lives and Secret Loves, writer Lee Wind examines principal source letters, poems, and more to rethink the lives and loves of historical figures.
Today Lee joins us to give readers insight into the inspiration and purpose of this fascinating YA nonfiction!
Why this book?
In 2011 I heard a talk about the letters that Abraham Lincoln wrote Joshua Fry Speed, letters that convinced the speaker that Abraham and Joshua were in love. I’d been out for a long period, and had never heard of this. And I thought, no way.
Everything up until then that I had learned about history taught me that history is the story of rich, white, able-bodied, cis-gendered, hetero men from Europe. And maybe a rare from America, like Abraham Lincoln. He couldn’t possibly have been gay!
But I couldn’t shake the concept, so I went to the library and got copies of the letters. I didn’t come out as a gay dude until my twenties, and I spent a lot of time and force in high school and college and grad educational facility da
What Do You Speak to ‘That’s So Gay’ & Other Anti-LGBTQ+ Comments?
It doesn’t matter if it is a first grader who might not know what the synonyms “gay” means, a sixth grader trying to sound cool or a tenth grader “teasing” a companion. All of these scenarios have the potential of creating an unsafe classroom or school environment and must be addressed. So, what can caring adults do?
Download PDF
Descargar En Español
STOP IT…
Keep it simple with hasty responses:
- “Remember, we don’t utilize put-downs in this class.”
- “Do you know what ‘gay’ means?"
- “It’s not OK at this school to employ ‘gay’ disrespectfully to indicate something is bad.”
- “You may not have meant to be hurtful, but when you use the synonyms ‘gay’ to mean something is bad or foolish, it is hurtful.” Follow-up with, “Do you comprehend why it is hurtful?”
- “Using any derogatory word to tease someone is harassment and is unacceptable.”
- “Even if you didn’t mean to offend people who are gay, it is revolting to call this assignment gay (or queer); if you don’t like something, then say you don’t like it!”
- “It is never OK to say, ‘you act like a teen (or look like a boy)’ as a put-dow
Adult LGBT Population in the United States
This report provides estimates of the number and percent of the U.S. adult population that identifies as LGBT, overall, as well as by age. Estimates of LGBT adults at the national, state, and regional levels are included. We rely on BRFSS 2020-2021 statistics for these estimates. Pooling multiple years of facts provides more stable estimates—particularly at the state level.
Combining 2020-2021 BRFSS data, we estimate that 5.5% of U.S. adults identify as LGBT. Further, we estimate that there are almost 13.9 million (13,942,200) LGBT adults in the U.S.
Regions and States
LGBT people reside in all regions of the U.S. (Table 2 and Figure 2). Consistent with the overall population in the United States,more LGBT adults live in the South than in any other region. More than half (57.0%) of LGBT people in the U.S. live in the Midwest (21.1%) and South (35.9%), including 2.9 million in the Midwest and 5.0 million in the South. About one-quarter (24.5%) of LGBT adults reside in the West, approximately 3.4 million people. Less than one in five (18.5%) LGBT adults reside in the Northeast (2.6 million).
The percent of adults who identify as LG
.