"Gay" means "rubbish" according to BBC.

[pnwmom]

As if this week weren't depressing enough . . .

http://www.rawstory.com/showarticle.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fpageoneq.com%2Frssfeedstuff%2Findex.php%3Fid%3D7689

"THE word “gay” now means “rubbish” in modern playground-speak and need not be offensive to homosexuals, the BBC Board of Governors has ruled.

"A listener complained after Chris Moyles dismissed a ringtone by saying on his Radio 1 breakfast show: “I don’t want that one, it’s gay.”

"The complainant argued that the use of the word gay in this context was homophobic. The governors said, however, that Moyles was simply keeping up with developments in English usage.

"The programme complaints committee noted: “The word ‘gay’, in addition to being used to mean ‘homosexual’ or ‘carefree’, was often now used to mean ‘lame’ or ‘rubbish’. This is a widespread current usage of the word amongst young people.”

SNIP

[davidinalameda]

1. what a bunch of shit

[roguevalley]

2. then perhaps there can be no offense to such remarks as

fat assed white boy, etc. after all, current usage of the word might have changed by now.

[johnnypneumatic]

3. by that definition all repukes are gay

they're certainly all rubbish, and lame

[Smarmie Doofus]

4. It has the same general meaning among American....

adolescents. This has evolved in the last fifteen years or so, near as I can tell.

"Depressing" perhaps, but nonetheless true.

[yardwork]

5. That's no reason to put up with the usage.

It reflects accepted bigotry. Everyone knows that "gay" refers to a GLBTQ person. So, allowing it to be a stand-in for "rubbish" or any other derogatory word is bigotry, plain and simple.

My adolescent male children understand this well. They speak up when one of their friends uses the word "gay" in a derogatory way. If enough people do this, the usage will stop. People can learn.

[pnwmom]

8. I agree. We all should speak out against this usage whenever we

hear it.

[pnwmom]

7. You're quite right -- but that should be strongly criticized, not adopted

by the news media or anyone else as a now acceptable meaning.

I had this discussion with a niece several years ago. She tried to convince me that the word gay, as a negative, did not refer to gay people. That it simply meant "lame" or "unpleasant" and it was just a coincidence that the same word had two different meanings. I asked her how she thought gay people felt when they heard the word "gay" -- a word that refers to them -- being used as a synonym for something bad. She clearly had not thought about that before. But you'd think she would have, if any teenager would have . . . since her best friend's brother was gay. Not to mention her own grandfather.

She did stop, by the way.

[mzteris]

6. b--s----

When I was a kid in south Georgia/south Alabama we'd use the word that's "n - - - ery" which I suppose had the same - er - *connotation* - that they're trying to claim it's what kids really mean when they say it's "gay". But it was really a put down of that "other group" - and a direct insult to the person to whom you were speaking by putting them in that "class" of people.

:(

I call people/kids on the use of the phrase "that's gay" - and tell them it's rude to use in that way and that there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with "being gay".

(Of course I now know a lot of pissed off parents - but that's their problem.)

[pnwmom]

9. This reminds me of a situation with a teacher in Seattle

The teacher was reprimanded for the way he handled a situation involving a student who used the word "gay" in a derogatory way. Accounts conflict, but in addition to taking the student out into the hall and asking him how he would feel if someone called him the n-word, the teacher either went back into the class and called the student the n- word or asked the rest of the class "what if" he had used the n- word to refer to the student.

In the publicity about the case I was always struck by how many people just didn't get it. There was almost universal condemnation of the new teacher -- who certainly could have handled things better -- but little discussion or understanding about the teacher's point -- that the use of gay as a slur should be as unacceptable as using racial terms as a slur.

http://www.myshortpencil.com/schooltalk/cgi-bin/board-profile.cgi?action=rate&topic=2&page=2156&post=6924

"Hours after he was reprimanded yesterday for using a racial slur last month in a conversation with a black student, a Cleveland High School teacher announced his resignation.

"Brian Emanuels was disciplined but not fired by Seattle School District officials, who said that while the first-year computer teacher's remarks in the classroom were wrong, he had tried to make a teaching point to stop the use of discriminatory language in his classroom. . . .

"'His choice of words was inappropriate and unprofessional. But it's important to consider the full context for what was said,' said Lynn Steinberg, a district spokeswoman. 'He didn't mean any harm from it (the slur), and he was trying to drive home the important point that words can hurt.'

SNIP

"One student recalled Emanuels saying, " 'This is like saying this is so black or so Jew or so (slur)ish.' He said (using gay in that way) is like saying black is ugly. We were all thinking, what's this guy's problem? But he kept on going."

[dsc]

10. He had the big three kill him here

He dropped the n bomb which is huge, he is white which made it hugher, and parents refuse to accept any notion that their kids need correction and thus using gay is OK. They lost a great teacher over this from the other comments in the articles. He was incredibly dumb to use the n bomb though.

[Ioo]

11. That's Gay!

[closeupready]

12. Not surprising, considering the Anglo tradition of homophobia,

which they shipped to the Carribean, India, basically everywhere they colonized.