When straight people use the word “gay” to describe someones actions, is the meaning slightly different to?
Sure, when people use “gay” as a catch-all derogatory term, that’s obviously different than when someone says someone else is actually gay, as in homosexual. That’s why most gay people find that usage to be pretty offensive. You’re essentially just taking a word that means one thing and just wholesale attaching a negative meaning onto it. Then again it’s happened to other words like “dumb” (people often think of that term meaning stupid, but it originally meant “mute”), and “gyp” (refers to gypsies). “Jew” used to be used similarly – to “Jew someone” meant to cheat them or to be overly penny-pinching.
