Pride in being gay still counts for far more than the negative attitudes of the few, writes Orla Tinsley
MOTORISTS WHO whizz past cyclists are gay. Anyone cycling through traffic at 8am knows that. So is American actress Lindsay Lohan, if you bother to read gossip columns, but not in the same way.
The latest import from America is not the imitation Sex And The City shoes on sale in various shoe shops around town but it is in fact a less attractive American product.
It's the recycled and repackaged word that no longer means elated or cheery. Nor does it mean simply homosexual. Our ever-growing cultural affinity with America has left us with springing Starbucks shrines and a large supply of orange women to occupy them, but now we've imported something else, that doesn't come low-fat, organic or semi-mocha hoca skimmed.
In the same way we contracted the word like as a, like, break between sentences to allow time to, like, think. We have now adopted the word gay as slang for stupid or un-cool. And although it's light and frothy, you're, like, so gay if you didn't notice.
You may have noticed, however, the stomach-churning comments of DUP member Iris Robinson. Speaking from a time zone of her own almost two weeks ago, the staunchly religious wife of the Northern Ireland First Minister informed BBC Radio Ulster that she knew a "lovely psychiatrist" who "tries to help homosexuals - trying to turn them away from what they are engaged in". She then offered to "put any homosexual in touch with this gentleman".
How gay.
The fact that the unhealthy comments were propagated by Mrs Robinson directly after a serious homophobic attack in Antrim, proved even more unsettling.
While Mrs Robinson insulted homosexuals, California celebrated them. Same sex couples began to marry on Tuesday June 17th, a month after it became legal in the state.
Norway too legalised marriage of same sex couples on May 11th which will come into effect in early 2009. It would seem that the comments of one woman matter little considering the triumph of the past few months, and certainly our newly adopted word matters even less. With Cork Gay Pride just over, Dublin Gay Pride this week and Belfast Pride in August, the celebration of diversity seems to outweigh the negative.
But even the little trickling of, "these exam results are so gay", dilutes not only our individual language, it weakens the strong smell of pride.
Gay Pride is also a chance for innovative groups such as LGBT Noise and Marriage Equality to reinforce their strength and support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people in Ireland.
At LGBT Noise's first protest championing for civil rights for gay people in December of 2007, they brandished signs with messages such as "Do you have a problem with Gay Marriage? Don't Marry a Gay! Problem solved."
It's honest and straightforward, and could be a good message for Mrs Robinson and other staunch fundamentalists who share her views that homosexuality is "an abomination". Maybe taking heed of it would make them less, for want of a better word, gay.
The current issue of The Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences of the United States claims that gay men and straight women share symmetrical hemispheres. This means they have the same characteristics in the area of the brain responsible for emotion, mood and anxiety.
Luckily gay men involved in Dublin Pride this weekend shouldn't be too bothered about their chemical similarities with Iris.
With a quarter of a century of pride under their rainbow and the battle for same-sex marriage continuously gathering fuel, moving forward is the only option. Not dragging up old concepts chained to a world that cannot exist any more.