Andrew Manning said:
WOW!!!!! I'm glad we've cleared up that gay = stupid now!
I know you didn't mean it as bigotry, and I know it's used as slang frequently, but this is awful. This is really awful.
Everyone in this thread and who reads this, the word gay means homosexual. It should not mean stupid, or "different and wrong", or immoral, or generally bad. To use it in this meaning it to equate these things with homosexuality. To equate homosexuality with stupidness/wrongness/immorality is to act as a bigot. To act as a bigot knowingly and purposely is to be, by my definition and I certainly hope I'm not alone, a bad person.
So now that you all know what the use of this term in this manner really is, you now have a choice of whether to be a bad person or not. I hope you'll choose wisely before using this "accepted slang" ever again.
-Andrew
The english language changes. Homosexual men do not own the word gay even though many of them use it to refer to their sexual choice. Below is the definition of the word from Dictionary.com. Perhaps this will include the meaning as silly in the future, I know many people have used it to mean silly that is typically how stuff gets in the dictionary for groups of people to start using words for a given meaning. I even here it used in skateboarding tricks as gay twist. So if you notice the word gay has quite a few meanings beyond homosexual male.
?Synonyms 1. gleeful, jovial, glad, joyous, happy, cheerful, sprightly, blithe, airy, light-hearted; vivacious, frolicsome, sportive, hilarious. Gay, jolly, joyful, merry describe a happy or light-hearted mood. Gay suggests a lightness of heart or liveliness of mood that is openly manifested: when hearts were young and gay. Jolly indicates a good-humored, natural, expansive gaiety of mood or disposition: a jolly crowd at a party. Joyful suggests gladness, happiness, rejoicing: joyful over the good news. Merry is often interchangeable with gay: a merry disposition; a merry party; it suggests, even more than the latter, convivial animated enjoyment. 2. brilliant.
?Antonyms 1. unhappy, mournful.
?Usage note In addition to its original and continuing senses of ?merry, lively? and ?bright or showy,? gay has had various senses dealing with sexual conduct since the 17th century. A gay woman was a prostitute, a gay man a womanizer, a gay house a brothel. This sexual world included homosexuals too, and gay as an adjective meaning ?homosexual? goes back at least to the early 1900s. After World War II, as social attitudes toward sexuality began to change, gay was applied openly by homosexuals to themselves, first as an adjective and later as a noun. Today, the noun often designates only a male homosexual: gays and lesbians. The word has ceased to be slang and is not used disparagingly. Homosexual as a noun is sometimes used only in reference to a male.
