Another day at the pool gone horribly wrong

DonnaL
Thu, 25 Jun 2015 18:38:38 +0000

Another example is the word “gay”. When I was in my teens gay meant joyful and free. Now, well, it doesn’t.

I don’t know how old you are, but the usage of the word to mean “homosexual” within that community dates back at least to the 1920s, and was very commonly used by the 1950s by both men and women (judging from books I’ve read written in that decade). I first heard the word used that way sometime in the late 1960s (certainly by the time of Stonewall) when I was in my early teens, and by the time I started college in 1972 I think everybody knew what it meant – the Gay Alliance at Yale (“G.A.Y.”) already existed by then. (Even though the New York Times prohibited its use until about 1986!)