Omg, Catherine, you totally did not just say that! It's so politically incorrect. So hetero-normative.
Well, besides the obvious--being really, really funny, it is also a phrase I first saw a young queer guy wearing on his shirt when I was working the San Francisco PRIDE weekend. Yep, a youngish, homo-loving guy proudly wore this shirt and I thought it was brilliant!
When I first began working in the LGBTQIQ commyunity in San Francisco in 2002, I wondered how many times I would come home with a fresh bruise after being hit in the face for saying "that's so gay!" However, to my surprise, using the terms "gay", "hella gay", "super gay", etc are used quite frequently among MANY queer people.
I was in for more surprises when multiple queer people told me that I was ''..the gayest man I know!" Hmm...let's take a look at this for a quick minute. I'm not clear just what exactly about my personality makes me so gay. Yes, I know what chutney is (and how to use it). I like things to be super orderly and done in a particular fashion. And yes, I really liked ordering give away stuff for the various street fairs and packing them up nicely. But in my defense, if your major demographic is gay, queer, or trans people under 27 years old, then who WOULDN'T want a mini-butt plug or penis pacifier to suck on? Seriously, this seemed like a no-brainer to me, but since I came up with the idea, it garnered me super-duper gay status!
Even though I complained about working the street fairs every year, I still prepared like a champ :) If you have ever been to a street fair in San Francisco then you know you have a LOT of competition for people's short attention span. With naked people, bdsm demos, porn, music, etc. it takes some creativity to attract people to your booth. I augmented this by buying a bubble machine and making sure the table was pretty fabulous with plenty of free candy, condoms, and lubricants.
My personal touch was adding confetti and glitter for extra appeal. In fact, people usually wanted me to work the early shift of street fairs so I would be the one setting up the table. If I came after the fair was already in progress, the staff would be excited to see me and have me "gay up" the table.
If all of the above makes me gay, then I am 100% comfortable with that! Seriously, it's the year 2010 people.....get over it.....homophobia is so gay!
