University of Otago researchers have confirmed what many have been observing over the last decade – a second metamorphosis in the meaning of the word “gay”. Focus group studies conducted amongst Dunedin high school students for the purpose of studies into youth dental health saw many respondents describing the research as “gay”. When asked to define what the word meant, all 300 students in the research agreed that it meant "boring or pointless" and "with a sense of the slightly feminine about it". "It's derived from homophobic origins when it was perceived to be a bad thing to be gay and that negative connotation is put on to some-thing people don't like," said Nathan Brown, co-ordinator of Otago University's UniQ support group. UniQ ran a campaign a few years ago to encourage people to think before using the word in a negative context, but it seems the new meaning is quickly passing into our lexicon. “Now you have even gay guys using it," Brown added.
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Friday, 12th September 2003 - 12:00pm