A History of `Gay'

To the Editors of the Crimson:

In the article (September 20) "Gay Studies, Academia, Activism" Roger W. Brown, a senior Harvard scholar, makes an interesting distinction. He is quoted as saying "that he is not `gay,' but rather `homosexual,' as he belongs to an earlier generation, born before 1960."

Professor Brown may be late in his dating. In 1936, I saw the following graffiti on the men's room wall of a Provincetown restaurant: "I am the gayest boy (homosexual) in N.Y.C." Here was someone identifying himself as a "gay" 54 years ago. The magnitude of the boast amused me. I already knew what the anonymous writer meant by "gay," but his pedantic use of the parenthesis suggests that he was not sure everyone did--even in Provincetown.

In the days when very few came out of the closet, and when heavily masculine types applied brutally obscene epithets to presumed homosexuals, gentler but still condescending terms like the quasi-official title chosen by male homosexuals themselves I cannot imagine. In this country and England one of its meanings was "an agressively forward or impertinent manner."

The Oxford English Dictionary gives a quote from P. G. Woodhouse: "The flush on the little man's face darkened. `Are you trying to get gay with me?' he demanded dangerously." In 19th century England the term "gay" was applied--"with grim inappositeness," as one source puts it, to female prostitutes. Robert G. Davis '29