homosexual:
1. Relating to or characterized by a sexual-orientation (love or desire) for people of the same sex . 2. A person who is sexually or romantically attracted only to people of the same gender .
ETYMOLOGY: Coined in 1869 by a Hungarian physician named Karoly Maria Benkert from the Greek homos and the Latin sexus, meaning same sex . It entered the English language in 1892 through C . G . Chaddocks translation of Krafft-Ebings Psychopathia Sexualis . The term first appeared in US medical journals in the 1890s, and began appearing in general usage in the 1920s. Historical trivia: In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders.
Usage: Homosexual(ity) has long been regarded as etymologically incorrect and confusing being based on the Greek homos , meaning same as, and the Latin homo , meaning man , in which case it excluses women. For this reason but also because of the prejudice attached to it , many terms have been suggested as gender-neutral substitutes for homosexuality including: controsexual , herosexual , homogenic , homoism , homophile , homophylophilia , intermediate-sex , intersexual , isosexual , simulsexual . Other words are gender-specific: androtrope (male homosexual), gyneotrope / gynaeocotrope (a female homosexual), feminosexual (a lesbian , as opposed to homosexual , male homosexual).SEE ALSO: hypothalamus .
QUOTES:
(1) Mae West: ' A homosexual is a female soul in a male body .'
(2) Gay slogan: ' Homosexuality is not a four-letter-word .'
(3) Boris Grushenko (Woody Allen) in Love and Death (1975): ' Some men are heterosexual , and some men are homosexual, and some men don't think about sex at all. They become lawyers .'
(4) Russell (Harold Ramis) to the recruiting sergeant in Stripes (1981): ' No, we're not homosexuals, but we're willing to learn .'
(5) Opal Gilstrap (Raye Dowell), a lesbian in She's Gotta Have It (1986): ' You're not born a lesbian or heterosexual . Both traits are within us. We all have the potential to go either way .'
(6) Murray (Donald Faison) to Cher Hamilton (Alicia Silverstone) about her friend in Clueless (1995): ' Your man Christian is a cake-boy. (...) He's a disco-dancing, Oscar Wilde-reading, Streisand ticket-holder friend of Dorothy. Know what I'm saying? '
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