Man who lives in town of Gay couldn’t get farming license because it’s ‘offensive’

[L. Coyote]

Source: PinkNews Nick Duffy 26th September 2015, 5:40 PM

A farmer who lives in the town of Gay, Georgia has said he was banned from getting a federal cattle license, because the automated system rejected the name.

.... the town’s name was rejected as explicit by the USDA’s computer system.

He queried the hold-up with the USDA, recounting: “[A worker] said it’s kicking it out saying that’s an offensive word and won’t accept your application.”

The USDA quickly sussed that it was being rejected because the “city contains a banned word”, under a redundancy system that prevents the application system from being vandalised.



Read more: http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2015/09/26/man-who-lives-in-town-of-gay-couldnt-get-farming-license-because-its-offensive

---

Finally, a town where everyone has "Gay" friends.

[Renew Deal]

1. I know a person named Gay.

He's probably in his 50's or 60's. I wonder if this has happened to him.

[HereSince1628]

4. There are ,apparently, Gay men and women

The person I knew named Gay was a woman. She would now be in her late 60's.

[mwb970]

24. I knew a female Gay too.

This was in the Cleveland area. She became a hippie type and ended up in a log cabin in the northwest woods somewhere.

[SheilaT]

54. Ha! Maybe we knew the same person.

My Gay lived in Tucson in the early to mid 1960s.

Nonetheless, what bullshit!

[HereSince1628]

58. There are lots of Gays!

The Gay I knew was a college prof in WI.

[SCantiGOP]

10. I can top that Renew

There was a girl in my high school back in the 70s who's given name was Gay High. And that was before hippies started bestowing odd names on their kids.

[Cartoonist]

14. The Gay I knew

Changed her name. Nice girl, but she didn't like it when people would ask her, "are you Gay?" as in, "are you Tom?"

[AngryAmish]

16. A male nurse?

[Renew Deal]

20. No

[bvf]

21. I think that's a reference

to "Meet the Parents."

[Wounded Bear]

26. There is an NFL player named Gay...

http://www.rotoworld.com/player/nfl/4319/william-gay

[Liberal_in_LA]

43. Knew a Gaylord. Called himself Grady

[LiberalElite]

2. Gay, GA has NYC beat

we only have a one-block long Gay Street :


http://gvshp.org/blog/2012/10/10/is-gay-street-really-gay/

This article also provides a history of the changing meaning of the word "gay".

[malthaussen]

3. The sole survivor of VT-8 at Midway

... was Ensign George Gay. That USDA program is poorly-written, there are plenty of Gays in the world who aren't offensive at all.

-- Mal

[haikugal]

51. Thank you...it's my name and I like it just fine.

[LuvNewcastle]

5. I guess the kids who grow up there

get an education in etymology. I'm proud of the town for keeping the name.

[fasttense]

6. What is offensive about the word gay?

Is the word straight considered offensive?

There is a Gay Street going down the middle of Knoxville TN. The home state of the KKK has a Gay Street as a major thoroughfare in one of its major cities. They have a gay pride parade there evey year.

[DAMANgoldberg]

8. A major street...

in downtown Auburn AL is named Gay Street, and has been so named for at least the 33 years since I first got to the plains. Nothing is thought about it at all.
War Eagle, despite the football team!

[Enthusiast]

38. There is a Gay Street in Columbus Ohio too.

Must be pretty common.

[Deuce]

9. "Enola Gay"...

[SCantiGOP]

12. "Don we now our gay apparel"

Sure doesn't have the same implication now as when that song was written.

[bvf]

23. Gay Talese... n/t

[FlaGranny]

11. Nothing at all.

When I was growing up everyone used the word. It was contained in the name of movies. It was contained in songs. It means (or meant) "happy." I'm not sure when gays adopted the word to describe themselves, but I'll bet somebody knows.

[gvstn]

37. The kids in the hall used to have a funny bit about this.

I can't find a working video but this gives the first few lines before freezing. https://www.ovguide.com/video/the-kids-in-the-hall-clip-2-94c4a48c2a2411e4930b22000aa527b8

You can read the rest of the bit here, just read it in her voice. http://www.kithfan.org/work/transcripts/three/wordgay.html

[FreedomRain]

47. at least 150 years old

many late 19th c British novels use the word to mean alternative lifestyles, especially referring to prostitution (in general, not necessarily homosexual)

[Docreed2003]

48. I lived on that street...

I lived on Gay St in Knoville in a loft when the city began revitalizing it's downtown area. Those efforts were, in fact, led by young professionals and the strong gay community that moved there and supported the downtown businesses and restaurants. Was a great place to live at that time

[yellowcanine]

62. Baltimore MD also has a Gay Street

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_Street_(Baltimore)

[valerief]

13. Wow! Who coded that shit into the system? How utterly bizarre. nt

[Dont call me Shirley]

15. The word gay means happy. WTF is wrong with GA?

[Cal Carpenter]

31. It was the USDA's system that rejected it.

Feds, not GA, as far as I can tell.

[Dont call me Shirley]

42. Oh, who wrote and approved that programming then?

[Marty McGraw]

40. and then

there was J.R.R Tolkien's version of sticks & branches used for fire kindling. oh... wait.

[LynneSin]

17. Imagine if he was a farmer from Intercourse PA

just saying

[RoverSuswade]

50. Or from "French Lick" Indiana.

Or Hell, Michigan.

[Travis_0004]

53. Intercourse Pensylvania is 4.5 hours from Climax Pensylvania

It would make a nice trip, but I dont have the stamina to last that long.

[malthaussen]

59. Blue Ball and Virginville are closer.

Some interesting names in Lancaster county.

-- Mal

[LynneSin]

60. But if you make a wrong turn it's not far from Blue Ball PA or Bird-in-Hand PA

Just saying

[demwing]

18. What do you call someone from the city of Gay?

Gayers? Gaylinos? Gayliens?

[JCMach1]

19. Same problem for Climax, GA I guess...

[Sunlei]

22. update the naming filters Government computer IT person!

[Demeter]

25. A branch of our Polish family changed their name to Gay, back before the 50's, I think

for ease of spelling and pronunciation...

[RufusTFirefly]

27. Try accusing a cheapskate of being niggardly, and see what happens

In Cannery Row, Gay is a skilled auto mechanic, who flees to the Palace Flophouse in order to avoid his wife, who beats him.

With databases, it's definitely a case of GIGO (garbage in/garbage out). I have a friend whose parents were born in Canada and the United Kingdom. When she went to get her birth certificate, it said they were born in California and "Unknown."

There is also the case of the California driver who had the vanity license "NO PLATE." He was soon inundated with parking tickets. Another driver whose license plates said "MISSING" met a similar fate.

[gregcrawford]

28. There's a Gaysville in central Vermont

Those of an alternative persuasion often have their pictures taken in front of the Post Office sign!

[Comrade Grumpy]

29. And Gayville, South Dakota.

[classof56]

30. I'm reminded of Enola Gay, the B-29 that bombed Nagasaki.

Seems it was named after the pilot's mother, Enola Gay Tibbets. I recall a few years ago an article written about that plane, which the headline referred to as the "Enola Homosexual", to be "politically correct". Some kinda automated system, that one!

I've always liked this poem:

Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go,
Friday's child works hard for a living,
Saturday's child is loving and giving,
But the child who is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonnie and blithe and good and gay.

I see that in a more current version, someone changed that last line to "Is fair and wise and good in every way." What's next? Change the line in Deck the Halls that says "don we now our gay apparel"? Sheesh!

Here's to the two great people in my life named Gay, one male, one female. Bless ya both!

[snort]

32. How dare you post smut here!

That's "don we now our happy apparel" or perhaps "don we now our elevated mood apparel".

[agent46]

34. Festive, Man!

It means festive!

[classof56]

45. Good ones. Thanks for the smile.

And I promise--no more smut. Honest! Well, at least I'll try...

Cheers.

[Jim Lane]

35. Small correction, the Enola Gay bombed Hiroshima

The Wikipedia article on Enola Gay confirms my recollection that it's the plane that dropped the first bomb. For the second bombing, Enola Gay was the weather reconnaissance aircraft for the primary target of Kokura. Because of clouds and drifting smoke there, the B-29 with the bomb, Bockscar, diverted to Nagasaki instead.

[classof56]

44. Thanks for the correction!

I too had thought Enola Gay was the plane that bombed Hiroshima, so clearly I misread the Wikipedia article before my post and focused on the part about Nagasaki and Kokura. Shoulda taken a closer look. I also learned that the plane had been manufactured in Nebraska and not Boeing in Seattle, near where I grew up. Two of my aunts worked there (Boeing plant in Seattle) during WWII, regular Rosie the Riveters, but never really talked about their experiences, and they were of course quickly "unemployed" when the war ended. Interesting times!

[drm604]

33. The American Family Association used to filter their AP feeds, replacing "gay" with "homosexual".

This caused Olympic sprinter Tyson Gay to be renamed Tyson Homosexual.

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/dangers-auto-replace

In addition to blocking traffic from websites they don’t like, it looks like the web-geniuses behind the American Family Association’s OneNewsNow site have a few other tricks up their sleeves, such as automatically replacing any use of the word “gay” with the word “homosexual” in any of the AP stories they run … leading to instances in which proper names are reformatted to meet their ridiculous standard, such as this article about sprinter Tyson Gay winning the 100 meters at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials in which he is renamed “Tyson Homosexual”

[uppityperson]

36. "he was eventually able to get a license." Good they are taking steps to stop trolls, glad he got

the license finally.

[IronLionZion]

39. I remember some newspaper changed Tyson Gay's name to Tyson Homosexual

and my local newspaper growing up had a column called "Gay's Days" written by a woman named Gay.

[SCantiGOP]

46. Re Tyson Gay

It was a right wing fundie web site, Family Research Council I think, that had that rule. Copy was hilarious: changed his name to "homosexual" every time it appeared.

[Liberal_in_LA]

41. Lol

[Travis_0004]

52. I live 10 miles away from Beaverlick Kentucky

Its actually a pretty nice town but the climate is a bit to warm and damp for my taste.

[bearssoapbox]

55. .

[area51]

56. LOL. n/t

[Quackers]

57. Does this mean we can all go to the Gay Church? nt

[yellowcanine]

61. "Gay" is a perfectly fine word and should be available for use in appropriate contexts.

It is sophomoric to make it into an offensive word.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

63. He should look at the FIRST definition in the dictionary.

What a moron. He never heard the word 'gay' in any other context than a word for homosexuality.

How about:

When you're with the Flintstones
Have a yabba dabba-do time
A dabba-do time

We'll have a gay old time!!!