the new taboo

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:20 AM -0700 5/21/03, Brenda Lester wrote:
>Teenagers here in Macon, Georgia, are using the word "gay" for
>anything that is unacceptable or inferior. They insist that the
>expression has nothing to do with homophobia.
>
We discussed this slang sense of _gay_ = 'lame' earlier, and the
discussion should be in the archive.  It's also been discussed in the
mainstream press (see e.g. the Washington Post column by Chris
Redgate 7 May 2001 on "The Many Shades of Gay" or the Sept. 2000
salon.com piece cited below), often with the incorrect claim or
implication that this represents a recent innovation; sources
indicate that it has passed at least its silver anniversary.  There
was also a set of replies on Linguist List to a query posed by Dorine
Houston; these are collected in Houston's posting of 23 Feb. 2002.
This includes a post from me that I'll reproduce below:
============
Re your [= Dorine Houston's] query:  the first point is that this
isn't exactly a "new use" of the word.  The use of "gay" with the
meaning of 'stupid', 'uncool', or (in the slang sense) 'lame' has
been attested (as "juvenile") as early as 1978 in the Random House
Historical Dictionary of American Slang.  It's hard to argue that the
source isn't homophobic, although the current uses may be
unconsciously so.  There's a wonderful example of this that's
been cited a lot from the Simpsons, where Nelson kisses Lisa
and one of his friends says in disgust "Eeeuw, kissing a girl!
That's gay!"

Here's another, equally opaque use of "gay" = 'lame', from a
web newsletter:
======
Some guys simply play the numbers game when out at the bar.
Thinking to themselves, "if I go up to 100 girls tonight and use this
gay line, at least one will want to go home with me."
=======
For an inventory of responses to the use of "gay" = 'lame' by
language users of all sexual orientations, you could do worse than
check out this salon.com piece from a couple of years ago:
http://www.salon.com/people/feature/2000/09/14/gaygaygay/index.html

A reasonably full entry for "gay" (like that of the aforementioned
RHHDAS or the OED) will reveal that there's a lot more history
for the word than you note.  More relevant to the sexual
orientation sense than the non-slang  'cheerful' sense is the use
of "gay" in Victorian times to describe (female) prostitutes or
others living (what was perceived as) a dissolute or transgressive life.