Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Word of the Gay: "Homophile"

"Homophile" is an alternative to the word homosexual. Dissected the word means same-sex love. The term was commonly used for queer liberation groups in the 1950's and beyond, but has since rapidly begun to fade with the replacement words being lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kind of makes it sound a little pathological. But then, I am all for words like androphile and gynophile, since homo and hetero rely on the person it describes to be a specific sex.

Queers United said...

I think it sounds pathological as well. It's funny though because the reason the word was used is because gay groups felt homosexual sounded too clinical and they wanted homophile which had the word "love" and eliminated the word sexual so to show gays and lesbians are not just about sex.

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