Wednesday 10 December: "Day Without a Gay"

[Arnold Zwicky]

tomorrow is International Human Rights Day, and for the occasion two
San Franciscans have spearheaded a protest and boycott (across the
U.S.) on behalf of gay rights and in opposition to California's
Proposition 8 (banning same-sex marriage).  two points of linguistic
interest: the name of the event is "A Day Without a Gay", and people
are encouraged to "call in gay" from work.

(stories all over the place.  the ones Ben Zimmer pointed me to are

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081209/ap_on_re_us/calling_in_gay
http://www.daywithoutagay.org/ )

"A Day Without a Gay" is based on "A Day Without a Mexican" (a 2004
film directed by Sergio Arau), and has the additional virtue of rhyming.

"call in gay" is of course based on the idiom "call in sick".

don't know whether i'll be in a position to call in gay tomorrow: i
might be serving on a jury for the Santa Clara County Superior Court.

arnold

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