Monday, June 19, 2006
A Poet and I Know It
This is from something I wrote to an email correspondent today:
"Partner" will come again to mean "business associate" soon. The one word which people of my orientation have added to their permanent collection is "gay."
Sometimes, a pundit will bemoan the fact that the word "gay" has been co-opted. If you look at it, though, "gay" used to be a marginalized word. The fierce drag-queens of old ripped it from its shelter, painted it pink and set it on fire. "Gay" no longer means "politely cheerful." (It NEVER meant "happy.") It was a word which, I think, would have completely vanished from usage if it hadn't been transmogrified at Stonewall.
"Partner" will come again to mean "business associate" soon. The one word which people of my orientation have added to their permanent collection is "gay."
Sometimes, a pundit will bemoan the fact that the word "gay" has been co-opted. If you look at it, though, "gay" used to be a marginalized word. The fierce drag-queens of old ripped it from its shelter, painted it pink and set it on fire. "Gay" no longer means "politely cheerful." (It NEVER meant "happy.") It was a word which, I think, would have completely vanished from usage if it hadn't been transmogrified at Stonewall.
# posted by Fredwemyss @ 3:33 AM 
