"A Gozar (Let's Be Gay)" - Antobal's Cubans, 1932

Thanks to a posting on the blog called Dispatches from the Culture Wars, I've heard a story about something that happened last week in the States. My American readers may have already heard about this, but I doubt that my other readers have.

OK - so there's an ultra-conservative news organization in the US called OneNewsNow which had (has?) a policy of never using the word "gay" when they relay news reports to their readers. They censor out the word "gay" and always replace it with "homosexual".

But what if they happen to be reporting about a well-known American athlete - a very fast one - who happens to be named Tyson Gay? Well, when their handy dandy word-replacement software went to work on an article about that particular athlete, the headline came out...

"Homosexual Eases into 100 Final at Olympic Trials"

I don't know how long it took OneNewsNow to notice and fix their embarrassing error, but eventually they did. Until last night you could still find a cached version of the original article on the web. But now it's gone. Luckily for me, I printed out a copy before it disappeared...and here is a photo of my printed page (and of course you'll have to click on the image to get a full-sized, readable version)...



What I've photographed isn't the entire page, but it's the most relevant part. If you'll look at the bottom line of text shown in the photo, you'll see my favorite fractured statement from the article...

"Asked how he felt, Homosexual said: 'A little fatigued.'"

So this comical situation naturally leads to thoughts about the other substitutions of the word "gay" that OneNewsNow could come up with in future news reports...

The actress Marsha Homosexual Hardin

Homosexual Paree

From World War II - the (in)famous plane The Enola Homosexual

- and -

That famous (and, sadly, deceased) soul singer Marvin Homosexuale

But my officemate has come up with the best example of all. But be prepared - it involves questioning the sexual preferences of all-American Fred and Barney...

When you're with the Flintstones
Have a yabba-dabba-doo time
A dabba-doo time
You'll have a homosexual old time!

Janet

What am I listening to? You can go see at Auditory Cortex.