That's SO gay?

So i had just finished a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and was about to turn off the TV when an ad starring Hillary Duff came on telling 2 girls who had said, "that's so gay" about a skirt they didn't like to "knock it off".

Not believing what i had just witnessed, i jumped on youtube and typed "that's so gay" into the search bar. So there's quite a few of these floating around and i'm a little miffed. So I'll start with the definition of the word.

Gay

~adjective

1. having or showing a merry, lively mood: gay spirits; gay music.

2. bright or showy: gay colors; gay ornaments.

3. given to or abounding in social or other pleasures: a gay social season.

4. licentious; dissipated; wanton: The baron is a gay old rogue with an eye for the ladies.

While it's true that the word "gay" has enjoyed a double life for hundreds of years, it wasn't until the late 19th century that it began it's association with homosexual behavior/lifestyle. Before that, as early as 1637, the Oxford English Dictionary gives one meaning as, "addicted to social pleasures and dissipations" -think 'Slideshow'. During the 60's the bastardization of the word spread faster than the swine flu so that today "gay" in the sense of "homosexual" has chased out all other uses of the word... until now. The word "gay" is being bastardized again. Amongst young people "gay" has replaced stupid, dumb, retarded, etc. The pejoration of the word spread overnight thanks to youtube and social network sites, and what was forty years of gold medals for the gay community is now in jeopardy.

My argument is this:

Where was the outcry from joyful, happy people when they lost the only word to describe them to homosexuals? Just kidding.

When kids refer to something as being "gay" they aren't speaking out against homosexuals (in most cases anyways). They have collectively assigned a new meaning to the word just as during the 20th century, a new meaning was assigned to the word.

I understand where they are coming from. When someone says, "gay community" you're not thinking about a community of atrasado mentales. They own 95% of the word and the shit they get from everyone else, the last thing they need is for their word to have a negative connotation to it.

Is it worth fighting for?

Here in lies the problem. I have several friends who are gay who say, "that's so gay", gay meaning stupid, or cheesy, or, you know, gay! They don't have a problem with it. Can the gay community unite under this mantra? That remains to be seen.

Why is it such a big deal all of a sudden?

Simple. Just when the gay community was gaining momentum, they lost a key battle in a state they thought they had in the bag. I'm talking about California & gay marriage. This was a wake-up call to the gay community that even in the most liberal of states, they are still at least a generation away from equal rights. Rights i believe they should have. So they are out to improve their image amongst that next generation. I don't blame them. Especially when I support Obama going after that same generation to stress to them the importance of an education.

Possible outcomes?

The negative connotation is removed from our vernacular and gays get equal rights down the road.

or,

"That's so gay" turns into the new n word where gay people sing it whenever they want and straight people say it but only to other straight people.

Notice how the video below tries to kill 2 birds with one stone. In some circles, homosexuality is still viewed as a sexual deviancy so this vid puts it in the same class as race & religion.