How did "gay" and "straight" get to be opposites? Seriously annoys me.

[uppityperson]

gay vs ungay or sad
straight vs unstraight or bent or crooked

Why is it gay vs straight? This bugs me. Why can't I say someone's neigborhood looks gay but must say "festive"? What does straight have to do with sex anyway? This all bugs me. Anyone help me out?

Edited to change subject line

[LastKnight]

1. i believe it came from...

gay meaning happy... and the general stereotype of the flamboyant homosexual male always being happy. but I'm just guessing.

-LK

[99Pancakes]

2. Gay is a synonym for "happy"

"jovial", etc.

straight is equivalent to "straight-laced", "not drinking or doing drugs", "not crooked"........"boring"

(just guessing)

[Guy Fawkes]

3. ... Your neighborhood looks pretty gay.

Maybe you live in Soho?

[uppityperson]

4. No, I have a very happy go lucky neighbor

who was happy today. What does gay and straight have to do with sex? I am uppitier when annoyed by language.

[uppityperson]

5. self kick to put back up, hoping for some education here.

thanks.

[tjwmason]

6. Straight is as opposed to bent

I'm not quite sure of the origin of bent as meaning homosexual (I'm not sure whether this is used elsewhere in the world either).

Bent means dodgy; as in the old saying 'as bent as a nine-bob note' (the point being that there has never been a banknote worth nine shillings, thus is must be a forgery), this is slightly archaic, but it still applied to gays from time to time (mainly in a somewhat jovial manner).

Sometimes gays are refered to as 'benders', the implication herein being a tad too graphic for this forum (use your imagination if you can't figure it out). I'm not sure whether there is an etimological connection between this and 'bent' or if it just co-incidence.