As gay as

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To be overtly or flamboyantly homosexual. Potentially offensive. As if being bi isn't a valid thing!"Bi now, gay later," please. Also at this time, the phrase “gay it” meant to have sex.

With these new definitions, the original meanings of “carefree”, “joyful”, and “bright and showy” were still around; so the word was not exclusively used to refer to prostitutes or a promiscuous man.

Those were just accepted definitions, along with the other meanings of the word.

Around the 1920s and 1930s, however, the word started to have a new meaning. Offensive when used pejoratively. Offensive when used pejoratively.

My favorite ones that I’ve heard from the SDMB:
Gay as a box of birds
Gay as a tap dancing hyena (my current favorite)

I’ve also heard
Gay as a goose (the first one I can recall hearing, from an episode of ‘Cheers’)
Gay as a french horn
Gayer than cum on a mustache (some comedian, can’t recall who)
Gayer than eight guys blowing nine guys (comedian Patton Oswalt)
Gay as a chaise lounge

bup2

as gay as Christmas

Seinfeld - “so gay he buys Brawny paper towels for the packaging”

Malleus_Incus_Stapes3

Good Omens used “gay as a tree full of monkeys on nitrous oxide.”

Morgyn4

I’ve heard “gay as a Mexican hat band.”

MeanOldLady5

I used to say “gayer than the Pride parade they throw in West Hollywood every year.” A little long, and plus I think I need to update my reference now that I’m not in Los Angeles anymore, but twas my go-to nonetheless.

tdn6

Czarcasm7

Gay as a mayor
Gay as a playwright
Gay as a head of state
Gay as a Nobel Prize winner
Gay as a king
Gay as a painter
Gay as a mother
Gay as a father
Gay as a brother
Gay as a sister

GrandWino8

Gayer than Tom Cruise rollerblading in cut-offs.

Crotalus9

I like the one Freddie Mercury used to describe himself - gay as a daffodil.

Colophon10

As camp as a row of pink tents.

hogarth11

Morgyn:

I’ve heard “gay as a Mexican hat band.”

I’ve heard “as old dad’s hatband”.

old-fashioned Very happy; contented. A noun or pronoun can be used between "gay" and "up." Possibly offensive. Harharhar! Right.

Alex: Are they known for their homosexual tendencies?

Henry: Oh, oh, God, yes. The term originated from a meme that references a 3x3 Dungeons and Dragons character alignment chart and allows one to identify as "gay," "bi," or "lesbian," and to categorize their ability as "distinguished," "functional," or "disaster." I just feel like everything in my life is falling apart right now.

That guy is definitely hetero, do not hit on him.A: "I think you would really hit it off with my friend Molly, she's just kind of a disaster gay right now." B: "Is she the one who just lost her job?"

gay up

with gay aˈbandon

(old-fashioned) without thinking about the results or effects of a particular action: Although she was nervous at first, she was soon singing and dancing with gay abandon.

Gay here means ‘happy and without cares’.

(as) gay as pink ink

mod. having to do with an obviously homosexual person, usually a male.

Offensive when used pejoratively. slang To add gay content to something. In terms of the sexual meaning of the word, a “gay man” no longer just meant a man who had sex with a lot of women, but now started to refer to men who had sex with other men. slang To dress, decorate, or adorn someone or something in an overtly or stereotypically gay manner.

Although women could still be called gay if they were prostitutes as that meaning had not yet 100% disappeared.

Since then, gay, meaning homosexual male, has steadily driven out all the other definitions that have floated about through time and of course also has gradually begun supplementing the word ‘lesbian’ as referring to women who are homosexual.

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Bonus Facts:

The abstract noun ‘gaiety’ has somehow largely steered clear of having any sort of sexual connotation as with the word “gay”.

offensive slang To cause someone to be or become gay. When another character asks about why he is wearing that, he responds an ad-libbed line “Because I just went gay”. (Alex starts laughing) What?
Alex: I have no idea what a maypole is.
Henry: Maypole. Notorious for it.
This quote comes from the movie ‘Red, White & Royal Blue’.

::shrug smilie::

drewtwo9918

Gay as a man who routinely engages in romantic and sexual relationships with one or more other men!

Little_Nemo19

hogarth:

I’ve heard “as old dad’s hatband”. Ever since my brother got that car for his birthday, he's been motoring around at night with gay abandon.The insurgents set upon the town and began firing their weapons with gay abandon.
See also: abandon, gay
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.