That did not change until the association reversed itself in 1973. Historians believe the first use of “homosexual” was by Karl-Maria Kertbeny, a Hungarian journalist who wrote passionately in opposition to Germany’s anti-sodomy laws in the 19th century.īut by the 20th century, the word had taken on a definition associated with the American Psychiatric Association’s classification of same-sex attractions as a mental disorder. They want to say this is not normal sex, this is not normal family, it’s going against God.” “It also contains ‘homo,’ which is an old derogatory,” he added. What is most telling about substituting it for gay or lesbian are the images that homosexual tends to activate in the brain, he said. Lakoff, a professor of cognitive science and linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, has looked at the way the term is used by those who try to portray gays and lesbians as deviant. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, or Glaad, has put “homosexual” on its list of offensive terms and in 2006 persuaded The Associated Press, whose stylebook is the widely used by many news organizations, to restrict use of the word.
Some gay rights advocates have declared the term off limits.
