Whatever Happened to the Homosexual?
The term "homosexual" really seems to have fallen out favour these days, and I think that's a pity. I've noticed it for quite a while, but it really came home when I saw someone comment on a post on Facebook that attacks a right-wing politician's views on us, asking "Who uses that word to describe us anymore?" I admit it's not my go-to term, but I think the word deserves a bit more love. "Homosexual" as a term to describe same-sex attraction and activity was invented in 1869, by Karl-Maria Kertbeny , an Austrian novelist. He coined the word at least ten years before anyone came up with the word heterosexual. Kertbeny was protesting a proposed anti-sodomy law. Imagine how brave you'd have to be to even raise that topic back then. It was a revolutionary term at the time. It was the first time in Western culture (and many others) there was a term to describe us that wasn't linked with judgemental and derogatory religious and social...