"Gay" or "gay"

[Guy Fawkes]

How about this one: "Gay" or "gay"?

 

For Me: "gay" to me is an lighthearted and carefree attitude. "Gay" is a group of people.

"...Take a look up a couple paragraphs where I listed the names applied to a racial minority. Each of those terms is (or was) commonly capitalized. So are other ethnic or racial terms, like Native American, Arab, or Hispanic. Religious and cultural terms such as Jewish, Christian, Taoism, and Suni Moslem are also capitalized. Why shouldn't members of our community be identified as "Gay" instead of just "gay"?

 

--

http://toddverbeek.com/diffangle/lesbian-Lesbian.htm

[+ Avalon]

How about this one: "Gay" or "gay"?

 

For Me: "gay" to me is an lighthearted and carefree attitude. "Gay" is a group of people.

 

I agree with you. But I think typically now with the upper case "G" it's usually restricted to male homosexuals.

[mike carey]

I wouldn't capitalise it, I think it's more analogous to black and white which I also wouldn't capitalise when used about race. In general I would use a capital for groups that are described by national or continental origin, but not groups that are described by a characteristic. In English, country names and the derived adjectives (France, French unless for windows) and organised religions are traditionally capitalised. (In French, the adjectives for countries are not.) To add an element of confusion, I wouldn't capitalise indigenous or aboriginal. Except for Aboriginal/Aborigine in Australia which has become a name, not just a description. I don't see gay/Gay as an issue to go to the barricades about, though!

Edited September 16, 2018 by mike carey

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

And then there's 'Gaye,' for those of us with a soft-spot for '70s R&B classics.

 

(and yes, with a capital G)

 

Edited September 16, 2018 by Benjamin_Nicholas

[rvwnsd]

Adjectives and common nouns are not capitalized unless they begin a sentence or are part of an official title (such as The San Diego Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center). If we want to start capitalizing "Gay," then for consistency we should capitalize "Straight" when it refers to a person, Bisexual, Queer, Transgender, and so forth.

 

I'm curious: What is the logic behind capitalizing "Gay?"

[bnm73]

How about this one: "Gay" or "gay"?

 

For Me: "gay" to me is an lighthearted and carefree attitude. "Gay" is a group of people.

"Gay" is a basketball player.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudy_Gay

[Guy Fawkes]

Straight, Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian work for me; they're all groups of people. The logic is quoted in the OP with a link to the page.

 

Adjectives and common nouns are not capitalized unless they begin a sentence or are part of an official title (such as The San Diego Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center). If we want to start capitalizing "Gay," then for consistency we should capitalize "Straight" when it refers to a person, Bisexual, Queer, Transgender, and so forth.

 

I'm curious: What is the logic behind capitalizing "Gay?"

[rvwnsd]

Straight, Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian work for me; they're all groups of people. The logic is quoted in the OP with a link to the page.

The page quoted in the original post displays a "404 - Not Found" error."

[bnm73]

I could be mistaken (I'm no grammarian and it's been a LONG time since I studied English), but many of the capitalized adjectives listed in your quote come from -- or have in them -- proper names.

 

Jew comes comes from YHWH, the name of the Jewish diety. (Note: there are only "upper case" letters in Hebrew...no lower case.)

 

Christian comes form Christ.

 

Names of countries/continents are proper names/nouns, and words made from them carry over their capitalization.

 

Therefore, African American (not african american). Hispanic (derived from Spain). Native American (one of the first peoples) to distinguish from native American (someone who was born here).

 

I'm too far removed from Elementary school to remember other rules regarding capitalization....any English/language arts teachers out there?

[rvwnsd]

I could be mistaken (I'm no grammarian and it's been a LONG time since I studied English), but many of the capitalized adjectives listed in your quote come from -- or have in them -- proper names....

Right. Proper names are capitalized. As you stated, African American is a proper name that refers to an American (proper name derived from a proper noun) who is of African (proper name derived from a proper noun) descent. I'm of German and Polish ancestry (and maybe more - let's see what my DNA test reveals) so I can be classified as a German American, Polish American, and/or European American. We also call people of my skin tone "white." We would call me and others who look like me "white American," i.e. "white" is a common noun (so it is not capitalized) and "American" is a proper noun (so it is capitalized).

[Epigonos]

Somewhat distant from the above I have often wondered the following; if a Caucasian child who is born to Caucasian parents living in an African country at the time of his/her birth -- is the child African American?

Edited September 16, 2018 by Epigonos

[mike carey]

Somewhat distant from the above I have often wondered if a Caucasian child who is born to Caucasian parents living in an African at the time of his/her birth -- is the child African American?

South Africans, sometimes mischievously, have claimed this. After all, Afrikaners have been in Africa for as long as African-Americans have been in the Americas. (And what does Afrikaner mean?)

[+ Avalon]

Gay is a noun, while gay is an adjective. Helps to differentiate the two.

[Beancounter]

Showing my age here but when I see the word “Gay” I automatically think of two female friends of mine whose first names are Gay. Not many parents name their children Gay anymore. And it wasn’t that long ago that the word gay simply meant happy. But I digress.

[+ poolboy48220]

If I hadn't just cracked open a bottle of wine, I would consult the Chicago Manual of Style. Their monthly Q&A newsletter is a lot of fun. https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/latest.html

[BabyBoomer]

Gay Talese has always spelled it with a capital G.

 

~Boomer~

[+ Charlie]

The Amish used to use "gay" to refer to anyone who was not Amish. I don't know if they still do.

[Moe]

gEy