Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!nonh From: nonh@utzoo.UUCP (Chris Robertson) Newsgroups: net.women,net.motss,net.singles Subject: Re: homosexual associations Message-ID: <4277@utzoo.UUCP> Date: Thu, 30-Aug-84 20:02:38 EDT Article-I.D.: utzoo.4277 Posted: Thu Aug 30 20:02:38 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 30-Aug-84 20:02:38 EDT References: <4061@fortune.UUCP>, <1019@pyuxn.UUCP> Organization: U of Toronto Zoology Lines: 18 [Line-eaters of the world, come out of the closet and unite!] Regarding the growing practice of using "homosexual" to mean only "male homosexuals", I think one of the problems here is that there isn't any word in English (that I can think of, anyway) to refer to just male homosexuals. "Lesbian" quite clearly refers to just women homosexuals, so there's no problem here. But what do you use when you want a word for just male gays? "Gay" won't really do, because it has acquired generic meanings too, and is often used in forms such as "gay women". So I guess what we need is a new word, so female homosexuals won't get lumped in with the male ones wholesale. --Chris {decvax, linus}!utzoo!nonh "Know thyself; but don't try to explain thy knowledge to anyone by mail..."