No, “gay” gained usage as “homosexual” because the homosexual political movemnt wanted a nicer term. Go do a little research on it.

As an easy example, go do a little looking on the term “bright”, which an atheist group attempted (and may still be, for all I know) to mak a synonym for “atheist” in explicit referenc to how the homosexual movement did that with “gay”.

That treatment of words could actually create its OWN meaning of the term “gay”, referring to intentional co-opting of a word. In fact, I have heard usage of the term in ways that, were it a common discussion, would likely evolve quickly into that usage.

“To say that they don’t realize it means also (and today primarily means) homosexual is absurd.”

Congratulations, you are ignorant, and I mean that as factually as can be said. Having spent some time around teenagers in the last few years, I can quite authoritatively say that, at least to those in this area, while they do indeed know that “gay” means homosexual, the PRIMARY (and by a very larg margin) meaning for which they use the term is “stupid” or “lame”, with no homosexual reference intended or taken.

And for school-age children (up to and including high school), 10 years is a LONG LONG time… I’ve sen evidnce of words being transformed at least twice in 10 years. Some words that I used in high school have already changed meanings TWICE, and I graduated in the 90s.

Is it unreasonable to ask a Catholic if they do not eat meat on Fridays because of their religion, a Jew if they are circumsized because of their religion, a Muslim if they do not eat pork because of their religion, or a member of a religion that does indeed have polygamist sects if they have multiple parents because of their religion?

By the way – does anyone know anyone whose lives were negatively impacted by some ‘notation’ (not grades, activities, criminal offenses etc.)in their high school record?

As an aside, I always wanted to be different and to have people notice that I was different. It did mean that I was treated differently. Well, I wanted to be different.

It seems many people want to celebrate their diversity from others by having others fail to notice those differences.

Polack (spelled Polak by the Poles, meaning Pole) was changed to mean stupid. It received that meaning from the racist belief that Poles were stupid.

Words have origins. Most often those origins are logical.

“Gay” gained usage as “homosexual” through the perception of feminine sexuality in homosexual men.

Kids are using gay to mean something socially unacceptable, something less than they or their friends because…

To say that they don’t realize it means also (and today primarily means) homosexual is absurd.

David N. Are you sure you were using this phrase in elementary school 25 years ago?
I would certainly peg this usage as occurring after the acceptance of “That sucks.” as innocuous.

(Yes, an old fart – I’m barely able to accept modern usage of “that sucks” as innocuous. Again, there is nothing inherently bad about sucking. It became something bad by virtue of what was sucked.)

I may be incorrect, but I would put the age of “That’s so gay” at around a decade. TTBOMK gay as homosexual only gained currency after the early 70’s.

I’m hard-pressed to believe that the word transformed twice within 10 years.

Frankly, the school system did a remarkably dumb thing by treating this ‘offense’ so gravely. It may have been an opportunity for them to actually educate students in a positive manner about language and discrimination, but they’ve turned it into a negative lesson about using lawsuits to resolve petty grievances. Go figure.

elb