Even the Flintstones had a gay old time

I love my friend Todd. He’s more of a virtual friend than a flesh-and-blood friend--even though we used to work in the same building--because most of my contact with him has been through email and blog comments. (I did get to hug him at Word Camp, though.) Todd’s cool as hell, and I wish he would comment more because he always has something neat to say.

“Neat.” Who am I, Wally Cleaver? That’s so gay.

That’s so gay. I always say that; it’s one of the many verbal inflictions I continue to hold on to from like, sixth grade—before I even knew gay people were invented.

A couple of months ago my sister and I did a show about pet peeves, and in the course of my scientific research I came across a blog post from someone who said his pet peeve was people who say, “That’s gay” when they’re talking about something being “lame.” So now that I know it annoys someone, I make it a point to say “That’s so gay” at every possible turn. Yeah, real mature.

Anyway, on Tuesday, in reference to the apparent Twitter craze, I blogged about how gay the word "tweeting" sounds. Todd left a comment voicing his agreement, with asterisks referring to a disclaimer explaining his words were not intended to be offensive to gay people. He then wondered whether he should cut the word "gay" in this context out of his vocabulary altogether.

His comment got me thinking. Might a gay person actually be offended by people like me who say, “That’s so gay?”

Hmmm….

Now, anyone who remotely knows me would also know that I’m very vocal about gay rights and that about half of my female friends are lesbians. (Down, boys—I'm hip to your fantasies.) A few months ago my Prop 8 post had the Mormons up in arms, and my celebrity girl-crush on Beverly D'Angelo is not exactly a secret. (Remind me to add Kate Winslet to that list.)

But beyond the fact that I'm hardly a gay basher, I simply can’t imagine a real live gay person being offended by someone saying, “That’s so gay.” I mean, really—anyone who can’t handle that is gonna get their ass kicked out there in the real world. Plus I like to think that people, whether they’re gay or b-l-a-c-k or whatever, have the capacity to determine the intention behind someone’s words and the context in which they’re used.

Pulll-eeeze. You know, we wouldn’t be talking about any of this if it weren’t for those politically correct a-holes out there who think it’s their personal responsibility to protect every minority on earth, regardless of how insulting it actually is to the group in question. I wish there was a derogatory, politically incorrect word for those idiots. I would totally use it—at every turn—just to piss them off.