In my class a few weeks agao we were reading a short story about a girl who had moved from some tropical island to New York City in January. Quite a shock for that girl. In the story she talks about how she got up in the morning and although it had been cold the night before, she saw the sun was out so she figured it must be warm out. She put on a "gay summer dress." She was shocked when she learned that it was possible for it to be cold and the sun be out at the same time.

(Geeze-Louise-Can it be cold and the sun shining brightly!)

So my students all looked at me like something was amiss. Then one of them said, "Why is her dress gay?"
I said,"It doen't mean homosexual, it means bright and happy."
Student: "Why do we call gay people gay?"
Before I could say anything another student said, "Guurl! You know! It's because they're so HAPPY!" in a very stereo-typical, limp wristed kind of way.
The first student said, "OH!" (this really made sense to her)"That IS why!"
I said, "Ok, yes, that is why."

That started the "gay-week" at UD ELP. Everybody in my class was gay. They walked around telling the other students they were gay- which really didn't always have the effect they wanted. My students are the highest level so they knew what one definitions of gay was, the other students didn't know what "gay" meant one way or the other.

Oh they thought they were funny.

That weekend I was in the bookstore looking at a book about knitting ugly baby dolls. More on that later, but as I was sitting there I saw two sisters walk by, a teenager and a 9 or 10 year old. The teen said to her sister, "You are so gay!" The pre-teen said, "No I'm not!- wait, what does gay mean?"
The big sister said, "It means you like boys!" I don't know what that explanation was about- maybe she didn't want to get into gritty details . . .
The little sister said, "Oh, ok- then I AM gay! Hey everyone!" (shouting) "I'm gay! But at least I'm not lesbian!" I couldn't see them anymore, but whatever reaction the big sister had must have fueled the excitment of the little sister who then spent the next 10 minutes telling everyone in the store that she was gay and asking if they were gay too. It was funny for about 5 minutes, after that I wanted to strangle both of them.

On Monday I told my students about it and they thought that was one of the funniest things the'd every heard.