The word was invented in 1869 in German, but took awhile to filter into other languages. First citation in English, though, is 1895. In French, it's even later -- 1912, if I'm remembering correctly.
There's a long and arcane dispute that claims that gay identity and gay communities only existed after that word was created.
Historians have cut hole after hole in that argument -- one historian identifying such communities in medieval Europe around 1000, others talking about similar communities in ancient Rome -- but it doesn't seem to make a dent in the awareness of the postmodernists, who are particularly infatuated with this stuff.
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regna
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Date: 2008-11-16 12:47 pm (UTC)There's a long and arcane dispute that claims that gay identity and gay communities only existed after that word was created.
Historians have cut hole after hole in that argument -- one historian identifying such communities in medieval Europe around 1000, others talking about similar communities in ancient Rome -- but it doesn't seem to make a dent in the awareness of the postmodernists, who are particularly infatuated with this stuff.