Harry's Blog

So Chris Moyles got in trouble for calling something gay. That’s really annoying. Why? Because it means I’m actually going to have to stick up for the talentless DJ.

What’s the problem? Well it seems that the BBC received many complaints about Moyles’ use of the word to mean rubbish rather than homosexual. The use of gay to denote something of low worth is pretty new but one I admit to using myself.

Now I can see the homosexualist point of view here. Using a word that belongs to them to mean something rubbish could be perceived as homophobic. Fair enough.

But hold on one minute here Brokeback Mountain fans. How can you complain about the meaning of a word changing when the original use of the word had nothing to do with homosexuality at all. It meant happy, or something in that ballpark.

No one owns words. We just get to latch onto them for a while as they pass through on their journey through the language. The word Gay has had an interested journey, it spent a long time in sunny gardens before taking a wander down Canal Street. Right now it’s decided to take a turn down to the local landfill.

That’s just the way it goes. The meaning of the word is changing. It doesn’t mean that folks saying “That new Robbie single is so gay” are denigrating your choice of sexual partner, it’s just saying that the boy Williams has recorded a duff song.

Grow up, live with it.