Originally an adjective to describe a light-hearted, frivolous, or joyful attitude, it was used in the early part of the twentieth century to refer to someone with an open-minded or unconventional approach to sexual propriety. Until the 1950s this was its most widely recognized meaning, but in the middle part of the century it also began to be used as a synonym for homosexuality in general. This latter meaning emerged as the dominant meaning of the word in the 1970s. The annual Gay Pride parades held around the world in memory of the 1969 Stonewall riots have helped transform the word âgayâ into a generally positive and affirmative term. In the early part of the twenty-first century, âgayâ has acquired a new meaning, apparently unrelated to its other meanings, as a pejorative with the approximate meaning of âuncool, outdated, pathetic, and generally undesirableâ.