What is gay?

[Supermumz]

DS aged 8 asked me the meaning of gay. Picked it from school I think.. What do I tell him? Do your kids know?

We're not stupid! We've explained that some people might think it is a rude word so she shouldn't use it with people other than her Godfathers.

Look, if they're comfortable with it, who are we, or you for that matter to judge them? We take our lead from them - would you prefer we lectured them on their choice of labels?

But you used it on here!

The essential problem, Bristol Jim, is that we don't know you. Had you established your gay-friendly credentials over some time, your joshing might (and it is a might because frankly it's not great)have been met with chuckles.

Or not.

Not, I think. One of the pre-requisites of "joshing" is that it be funny. And appropriate. And well timed.

0 out of 3, I fear!

I think to be fair he probably does have poufter mates, but he has hopelessly ill-judged his efforts here.

Or poofter?

Poofter, I think.

I have a friend - well,he's not a friend really, he's more a sort of pet I keep to amuse myself - who is a Tory back bencher. He says "homosexualist"

And I suspect a lot of the teenagers concerned know perfectly well that it's offensive. They just use the wide-eyed "Oh, but it doesn't mean that any more" to bamboozle their parents, who, as I said downthread, are so petrified of seeming stuffy or stuck up or not "down with the kids"