# When was the last non-ironic use of the word "gay" to mean happy ? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 5, 2011, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-non-ironic-use-of-the-word-gay-to-mean-happy/566469 "2011-01-05T07:29:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-non-ironic-use-of-the-word-gay-to-mean-happy/566469/21 "2011-01-06T02:46:31Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > What about uses of Gay as a woman’s name? Or even the alternate spelling Gaye? When was the last time that popped up in popular culture? > > No, Gaylord Focker does not count. Well there’s the popular Irish talkshow host, Gay Byrne (short for Gabriel). Supposedly when he went to try make it big in America somebody suggested he use a different name, so he was asked his middle name. It’s Mary. > **[Gay Byrne](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_Byrne)** > > Gabriel Mary Byrne (5 August 1934 – 4 November 2019) was an Irish presenter and host of radio and television. His most notable role was as the first host of The Late Late Show over a 37-year period spanning 1962 until 1999. The Late Late Show is the world's longest-running live chat show. He was affectionately known as "Uncle Gay", "Gaybo" or "Uncle Gaybo". His time working in Britain with Granada Television saw him become the first person to introduce the Beatles on-screen, and By From 1973 u... ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-non-ironic-use-of-the-word-gay-to-mean-happy/566469/22 "2011-01-06T02:54:42Z")
Uh, Cecil did tackle how gay came to mean homosexual some years ago. [How did “gay” come to mean “homosexual”?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/517/how-did-gay-come-to-mean-homosexual) ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-non-ironic-use-of-the-word-gay-to-mean-happy/566469/23 "2011-01-06T05:43:27Z")
I think the 70s were still transitional. I recall a sitcom scene (can’t remember which show) where a visitor in a family’s home announced “I’m gay!” to which the clueless mother replied “That’s wonderful! We love happy people!” ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-non-ironic-use-of-the-word-gay-to-mean-happy/566469/24 "2011-01-06T05:48:54Z")
> [@Sam\_A.Robrin](#): > > My only complaint is that there is no other word to mean exactly what “gay” once did. I totally agree. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-non-ironic-use-of-the-word-gay-to-mean-happy/566469/25 "2011-01-06T07:22:46Z")
> [@Sam\_A.Robrin](#): > > People who spent their time drinking and club-hopping, with concomitant sexual adventurousness were said, a hundred years or so ago, to be living “the gay life.” It would necessarily have included homosexuals, and eventually evolved to only that singular meaning. > My only complaint is that there is no other word to mean exactly what “gay” once did. I think ‘party-boy’ and 1000 other slang example on urban dictionary will get you where you need to go, although that’s a pretty specific use of the word gay. I’d say the more general meaning can be covered by whimsy and whimsical, or in the extreme, fabulous. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-non-ironic-use-of-the-word-gay-to-mean-happy/566469/26 "2011-01-06T13:20:46Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > I’m 56, and a woman who would be a couple of years older than me lived next door when we were kids. Her name was Gay. That meant she was born and named in the early 1950’s. I have a friend whose middle name is Gay, and she is younger than your friend, so it was being used later than that. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-non-ironic-use-of-the-word-gay-to-mean-happy/566469/27 "2011-01-06T13:27:58Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > I’d say the more general meaning [of “gay”] can be covered by whimsy and whimsical, or in the extreme, fabulous. But those words are so … _gay_! ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-non-ironic-use-of-the-word-gay-to-mean-happy/566469/28 "2011-01-06T13:36:22Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > As I understand it, “gay” to mean homosexual derives from “gay boy,” Victorian slang for a male prostitute. Where **that** came from I don’t know. From “gay woman,” a female prostitute. **Sampiro** – it certainly could have meant it as “homosexual.” The term, of course, existed, and was used until the 1960s by gays as a shibboleth to identify other gays. If you saw a stranger who you were attracted to, you could ask him if he knows any places where you can have a gay time. A gay man would know what that meant, while a straight man would not. Since Cary Grant knew the term in the 1930s, it’s likely that someone else in Hollywood knew the term by 1960. The movie title that most amusingly affected by the change is **[The Gay Falcon](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033650/)**. It introduced a series of detective films about the Falcon (first played by George Sanders, then by his brother, Tom Conway, who played the Falcon’s brother and took over his detective practice. The title of the film derived from the fact that Saunders’s character was named “Gay Lawrence,” with “Gay” being his actual name. In any case, the film title sounds nowadays like a very strange sequel to a well-known Bogart film. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2011, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-non-ironic-use-of-the-word-gay-to-mean-happy/566469/29 "2011-01-09T01:01:08Z")
There was a previous thread here on the SDMB (past year or so IIRC) regarding the cultural use of the word “gay” and its change in meaning. Lots of debate and personal observations. Then somebody comes along and gives data on how many children in the US were given the name Gay. The number dropped like a rock in a few short years. To me that was pretty damn solid and good evidence of when gay shifted to one major meaning to another. I’ll let somebody else with better search foo find the actual thread. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2011, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-non-ironic-use-of-the-word-gay-to-mean-happy/566469/30 "2011-01-09T03:28:25Z")
You mean the [Baby Name Voyager](http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager#prefix=gay&ms=false&exact=true). Though “Gay” for a male had died out around 1900. I don’t think anyone disputes the fact that the term “gay” for sexual orientation entered the mainstream in the early 70s. However, it is still used in the meaning of “carefree” even now. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2011, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-non-ironic-use-of-the-word-gay-to-mean-happy/566469/31 "2011-01-09T03:54:22Z")
My Mother’s hometown is called “Gay.” It’s a very small town, and I’m fairly certain that the older inhabitants still don’t know why their name makes people giggle. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2011, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-non-ironic-use-of-the-word-gay-to-mean-happy/566469/32 "2011-01-09T05:11:21Z")
In 1981 Diana Ross reached #7 with her version of “Why Do Fools Fall In Love,” which asks the question, “Why do birds sing so gay” ---
**Author:** ![fuzzypickles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9d8465/32.png) [@fuzzypickles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fuzzypickles)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2011, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-non-ironic-use-of-the-word-gay-to-mean-happy/566469/33 "2011-01-09T06:11:51Z")
There’s always [Gay Rosenthal](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0742756/), producer of _Behind the Music_ and many other TV shows. And, to my surprise: _[“Throw another faggot on the fire”](http://www.daveandthomas.net/2010/08/30/throw-another-faggot-on-the-fire-video/)_ is not unique to Tolkien! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2011, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-non-ironic-use-of-the-word-gay-to-mean-happy/566469/34 "2011-01-09T06:27:42Z")
This predates several of the other mentions already made, but I was watching the trailer for the 1947 movie _The Ghost and Mrs Muir_ today and it non-ironically called the movie “a gay romantic comedy”. The movie was later made into a sitcom that featured Charles Nelson Reilly and I assume any gay references at that point were intentionally ironic. ---
**Author:** ![RachelChristine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@RachelChristine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RachelChristine)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2011, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-non-ironic-use-of-the-word-gay-to-mean-happy/566469/35 "2011-01-09T16:27:13Z")
I had a student who graduated a year or so ago named Natasha Gay. She’d be about 20 now. She was extremely embarrassed about it, but it was a family name. There is also a town here in WV called Fort Gay. There was a big deal last year when a guy from there got kicked off xbox live for using such an inappropriate word in his profile. It was eventually rectified, but if I remember right he had to fight them on it for awhile. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-non-ironic-use-of-the-word-gay-to-mean-happy/566469/36 "2011-01-11T16:29:18Z")
In 1997, Loreena McKennitt’s album The Book Of Secrets had a song called [The Mummer’s Dance](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqKc_8ZtuAY) (one of my personal favorites). It contains a refrain: > [@](#): > > We’ve been rambling all the night > And some time of this day > Now returning back again > we bring a garland gay ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-non-ironic-use-of-the-word-gay-to-mean-happy/566469/37 "2011-01-11T16:36:43Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > In 1981 Diana Ross reached #7 with her version of “Why Do Fools Fall In Love,” which asks the question, “Why do birds sing so gay” The song was written in [1956](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_Do_Fools_Fall_in_Love_(song)). Big hit for Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers. Lymon was 14 when the song was released! I know a 30 year old woman with the name of “Gai Spann.” ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-non-ironic-use-of-the-word-gay-to-mean-happy/566469/38 "2011-01-11T16:48:54Z")
> [@fuzzypickles](#): > > And, to my surprise: _[“Throw another faggot on the fire”](http://www.daveandthomas.net/2010/08/30/throw-another-faggot-on-the-fire-video/)_ is not unique to Tolkien! :eek: One of the crowning moments of my utter clueless dorkitude was being informed of the current meaning of faggot. I knew from really young that it was firewood (from Tolkien and other old fantasy and historical fiction), and I knew that a fag was a cigarette (from slightly newer fiction), and I even knew that “fagging” was something that British younger school boys did for their older classmates in a sort of hierarchical/hazing pecking order thing (from Enid Blyton’s “5” series, Jules Verne’s “The Long Vacation,” and others). Needless to say, I did NOT know that it was a term for gay men until I was in college. The progression makes sense, understand, but I never would have gotten there without a kind (and a bit bemused) friend telling me point blank what it meant. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-non-ironic-use-of-the-word-gay-to-mean-happy/566469/39 "2011-01-11T17:04:32Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > In 1997, Loreena McKennitt’s album The Book Of Secrets had a song called [The Mummer’s Dance](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqKc_8ZtuAY) (one of my personal favorites). Also from 1997, Bob Dylan’s “Standing in the Doorway” contained the lines: _I’m strummin’ on my gay guitar Smokin’ a cheap cigar…_ Like many of the lyrics on _Time Out of Mind_, the “gay guitar” line was alluding to an old folk song, but I think it counts as a modern usage. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2011, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-non-ironic-use-of-the-word-gay-to-mean-happy/566469/40 "2011-01-12T18:11:23Z")
Alone Again (Naturally) by Gilbert O’Sullivan, 1972. _To think that only yesterday, I was cheerful, bright, and gay. Looking forward to, Well, who wouldn’t do The role I was about to play?_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-non-ironic-use-of-the-word-gay-to-mean-happy/566469.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-last-non-ironic-use-of-the-word-gay-to-mean-happy/566469.md?page=3)