That's Gay!

One of the main points made in The Atlantic’s article, “Freedom’s Choice” (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200811/swear-words) was about questioning the government’s roll in censorship of broadcast TV but it also made an interesting point about how the usage and context of words in the English language can change their meaning. The FCC has banned the word fuck due to its sexual connotation but in many cases it is used more as a simple exclamation to give emphasis to what is being said. This can be hard to codify into policy because subtle changes, such as the difference between “fucking awesome” and “awesome fucking” can drastically change the intended meaning.
Another word like this with drastic meaning changes with subtle context changes is the word gay. It can be easily misinterpreted, like in a case in CA where a student was disciplined for saying “that’s so gay” and the school was sued by her parents for violation of her rights. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17388702/) The student claimed that she was not intentionally trying to offend the gay community or insult anyone, she was just saying that something was “That's so stupid, that's so silly, that's so dumb.”
Whether the homosexual community or the overly politically correct would like to admit it or not, the word gay has at two common meanings. Depending on the context, it can mean “stupid, silly or dumb” or “homosexual.” I’m sure there are some people use it as “stupid” in attempt to insult homosexuals but from my experiences the two meanings are separate. I even know many gay people (the homosexual type, not stupid) that use it in both meanings but some are very offended by it. Gay originally meant happy and then had the homosexual meaning added to it. I do not understand why people can not accept that its meaning has changed again.