The true meaning of 'gay'

Radio 1 presenter Chris Moyles has been cleared by the BBC of being homophobic for describing a ringtone as 'gay'. Apparently, the term 'gay' is now in common usage among young people to mean 'lame' or 'rubbish'. This has caused some controversy, especially amongst gay rights groups who don't like the idea that being called 'gay' is now to be seen so negatively. Setting aside the question of why there has to be a public inquiry every time a broadcaster says something un-PC, it is reasonable to ask: where could young people have got the idea that 'gay=rubbish'?

How about from another term, very closely associated with gay people: 'camp'. 'Camp', as Stephen Bayley argued in his scratch-their-eyes-out book on New Labour, Labour Camp, is just a synonym for rubbish. Or, as Susan Sontag observed in Notes on Camp, 'The ultimate Camp statement: it's good because it's awful...'. It's hardly a leap of imagination to re-work 'camp' as 'gay' when so many gay celebrities have wallowed in kitsch. If you, like many people both gay and straight, think Graham Norton and Will and Grace are dreadful, no-one could possibly blame you for associating 'gay' with 'crap'.