"Gay" in Fort Worth, Texas (1937-1941)

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Does "gay" (homosexual) come from Texas? The term seems to have been  used in 
the 1930s, according to this testimony.
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<a  
href="http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0415101514&id=fmjTYvrM-w0C&pg=RA2-PA16&lpg=RA2-PA16&dq=%22word+ga
y%22&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=4oCO9QcDLq3jFATl4TyogOgUKlM">Google  Books</a>
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Growing Up Before Stonewall: Life stories of some gay men
by Peter M. Nardi, David Sanders, Judd Marmor
London: Routledge
1994
Pg. 15 (Interview with Morris Kight):
A pioneer of the gay liberation movements and a longtime Los Angeles  
activist, Morris Kight was born in Texas in 1919.
Pg. 16:
I practiced male-male sexuality when I was in high school in Texas, and I'm  
happy to say that I didn't have a trace of guilt feeling about that, not a  
trace. Those were kind of happy affairs. Then I went to Texas Christian  
University at Fort Worth in 1937 to 1941, and there I was somewhat active as a  gay 
person. And I use the word gay deliberately because that was how I felt. I  
didn't feel particularly homosexual, I felt gay. Those were satisfying  
relationships.
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_Question: Where did you meet these people?_
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Morris: That's hard to answer--in social situations, casually, at the  
university. There were kind of indications, kind of signals, that you sent.  There 
was a language that went with the signals. The language would often go  around 
the word "gay"--"what a gay tie you're wearing," "it was a gay  experience," 
"we went to the theater and it was so gay," and so on. If after  eight or ten 
or twelve such references, if the person didn't respond, then you  just assumed 
he wasn't understanding it. If he did respond, often this led to a  social 
contact and to a sexual liaison. It was tenuous and risky, but often  
satisfying, if not thrilling.
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There were gayish areas in Fort Worth where Texas Christian University is.  
There was a place downtown called the Southern Club, which had a closeted gay  
clientele, but conversation between us would indicate some level of gay  
consciousness and some frankness and some class difference. We were kind of  paired 
off by class. I was a part of that. It was risky because I was an  employee 
of the university. I was on the staff of the Dean of Men and it was  risky to 
be associated with gay people.
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_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_Kight_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_Kight) 
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Morris Kight (born _November 19_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_19) , 
_1919_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1919) , _Comanche County,  Texas_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comanche_County,_Texas)  — died _January 19_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_19) , _2003_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003) 
, _Los Angeles,  California_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles,_California) ) was a _gay rights_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_rights)  pioneer 
and _peace  activist_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_activist) , based in 
Los Angeles. He is considered one of the original  founders of the _gay and 
lesbian civil  rights movement_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_social_movements)  in the _United States_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States) .
 

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