Let’s get this straight.

I’m not homophobic.

But if something is gay, well then it’s gay. So firstly, if I have written or in the future write about something that I’ve described as gay, don’t immediately take offence to it. Sure, it might be gay, but the meaning of the word has changed so much in the last 50 years that surely it can have three meanings.

Ever since I was a teenager, if something was gay, well then it was gay. You didn’t want it, you didn’t like it and you probably didn’t want to touch it. As it turns out, during that time of describing everything from teachers to cars to the weather as gay, one of my friends was secretly gay. When he came out and said he was gay, I was happy for him; it always takes great courage for someone to come out as gay. However, I did mention that if I felt something was gay that it would still get described as gay, regardless of his bias.

I did apologise a few times when I said I wouldn’t and now I do indeed moderate what I call gay and why when I’m around him and his partner, but the reality is that I mean no offence.

Back in the day, gay stuff was happy. Gay people were happy. And anything that was gay was generally brightly coloured and, indeed, happy. Happy to see, happy to hear and happy to behold. Gay-as.

But then one day, gay started to mean gay. Sort of a bit campy, sort of a bit mincey and certainly a bit, well gay.

And the rest of the world had to catch up. For instance, Holden ran an advertisement in the 1950's; 'Go Gay with a Holden'. As far as I'm aware, they only ran it in Singapore, however regular Australian-types would have had no problem with that back in the 1950's.



It simply meant 'happy' and being gay with your Holden at the time was perfectly acceptable. There were no connotations or overtones and the closest any stoic 1950's Australian man got to going gay by modern terms was either hazing someone in the army or repressing everything and becoming a priest.

Singapore, Australia, whatever, nobody's going to go gay in a Holden now unless they own a black convertible Astra and live in Newtown.

Ice cream manufacturer Streets for a long time ignored the changes occurring in Australia's gayness. And for a long time, they resolutely soldiered on calling their flagship ice block-on-a-stick the Golden Gaytime. I would often have a Gaytime as a child and turned out mostly straight.

Today I saw an advertisement on the side of a bus, "It's hard to have a Gaytime by yourself". True enough, but with the Internet anything is possible. It appears that Streets have embraced the change in the meaning and now use it in a tongue-in-cheek fashion which is great and a lot more sensible than burying your head in the sand and hoping everything goes back to being gay like it was in the good old days. I have since found out that the multi-packs in the supermarkets carry the tagline "4 chances to have a Gaytime!”

Fantastic.

Streets have embraced the change that was in the wind since the mid 1960s. And now I'm asking people to embrace a change for the 2010's. Words such as 'pound' have developed over time to mean a unit of currency, a jail for dogs and a thousand other meanings I'll leave up to your imagination to populate. Why can't 'gay' enjoy the same liberal freedom of application?

Adelaide's Advertiser runs an American comic strip called "Zits" about a teenager's interactions with his friends and parents. He says on a particular example, "Dude, those shoes are gay!" to which his friend replies "I am gay Jeremy, you know that."

Jeremy sheepishly finds himself in a position that I have found myself in the past, however he says it out loud, "Uh, I meant 'gay' as in 'lame', not 'gay' as in 'homosexual'". And he leaves it at that, which is more than what I would have said.

And dammit I'm sick of it!

So to sign off, here is a partial list of things that I think are gay:

- Black Holden Astra convertibles are gay.
- Faux hawk hair-styles are gay.
- Computers, cars and other assorted machinery malfunctioning and ruining your day are gay.
- Television channels deliberately delaying scheduling to punish you for recording their shows is gay.
- McDonalds salads are gay.
- Celine Dion is gay.
- Homophobia is gay.

Cheers,

Dave

Well said and yes I have a PINK GT that is GAY if it had only been left red but that can be changed Cheers Gerry

"and being gay with your holden at the time was perfectly acceptable"

If it isn't gay, it's cool........and that's exactly what the advert "loca" brochure is, man. The beef of the fine print below decscribes reference to gay as "a bright and cheerful finish". Certainely she's not gay, nor camp or butch, but looking for a man to drive the holden.

And so..... gay "is" the order of the day, so my slowly maturing sons tell me. That is if it does'nt SUCK, which is the next level of gayness I'm told.

Awsome work.

B

Correct. Homophobia is 'gay' (lame). As I'm old, I don't tend to use gay in the euphamistic sense, but nor do tend to use it in the bright & shiny sense. The word does have another use - In poultry showing, a bird with too much of a desirable colour is said to be "gay". So I might say "that rooster is a bit gay" and mean he has a few too many white spots on his black ground colour, not that he wants to mount other roosters or that he is undesirable. (He might be just the thing to inject some colour into a line of 'sooty' birds) Nor is he 'lame'. Hmm, I suppose calling something 'lame' may offend a disabled person!
I have gay friends, who I would say are tough enough to withstand someone calling stuff gay. Like I'm tough enough to take someone calling my car 'sick' (not that they do!). It doesn't feel like a complement, but i get the derivation - something being so much fun or so good that their head spins & they could be sick.
Language is fluid - once a 'blown' motor was broken, now it's force-fed.
Once it was good to be 'special', now when people call me that the hold one of my hands & pat it.
A kid in scripture class described Jesus as 'wicked'. I had to think for a second - he meant awesomely cool! Bizzaro world!!
Sorry Gerry, no Bellett is gay, even a pink one - at least it's not silver!
Keep ranting, Dave, fun to read!
Cheers, Matt.

awesome poster dave!
my 1 eyed holden living cousin (who think his wife's XR6 turbo falcon is awesome ) will love it!

I'm glad no offence has been taken. That would have been gay.

Political correctness would be more valid if it were consistent and not used as a club to beat the people someone disagrees with.

Long ago, I had to deal with a gentleman who refused any description other than "alternative gender and lifestyle". None of the other descriptive words or phrases, in the entire range from polite to derogatory, were acceptable to him.

However, he insisted that there was nothing wrong with him describing anyone or anything he disagreed with as "crazy", "dumb", or "stupid".

His agenda was alternative-gender-and-lifestyle rights, and defending the rights and protecting the feelings of the deranged, insane, or infirm, the mute, or the deaf was not in his priorities.

We all had very impolite names for the alternative-gender-and-lifestyle hypocrite whenever he was outside of earshot. The efforts of the PC Nazi had the opposite of the desired affect.

sad thing is JT, that your story of the gentleman that you've dealt with is really far too common a problem these days.
all they prove is that the old statement of "the pot calling the kettle black" is one of the true-est ever!

"Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end."

Not just Holdens were Gay. In the mid 1950s, the Hillman Minx painted in two-tone was described as "the Gay Look", they were widely advertised. And these same cars were built by Isuzu under licence.

http://hide-g.blog.so-net.ne.jp/2005-11-17

So, Belletts have Gay ancestors

Cheers, Vic

Good work Vic! Those gay Minxes have such flair! Nice brochure - I like the ragtop G.T. ancestor.
Cheers, Matt.