Gay has never been an insult, and I and my very-much-opposed-to-gay-marriage-and-bo oted-from-mydd-as-a-result husband have many gay friends. In fact, if you think about it - Gay was actually one of the best examples of lakoff's 'framing' that you can write about - it is a happy word - much more positive, in its genesis as the label referring to homosexuality - than the labels that were applied in the 50s when it got started.

As far as Anne goes here, using the term - I wouldn't know what she said and in my busy day I won't want to know - but I do believe that its important to avoid buying books from or even recognizing people people who can't write well, and don't communicate effectively.  I got a mail from the edwards campaign today that was all in a huff about it. I won't donate for a cause against something that popularizes (even by negative publicity) someone who really , at the bottom of it all, just can't write well or think creatively enough - I would much rather the edwards campaign get all in a huff about someone slandering the poems of emily dickinson than someone trying to pass off third rate doggerel as some kind of interesting political cutdown of a current political figure.  

I guess thats why I've beenwith moveon.org for so long; it just doesn't make sense to spend so much time and effort on something that will get nowhere - most of moveon's policies are aimed toward return on investment - the classic case - what if the smear against bill clinton were reduced to just, a vote on censure? Then bill would have been chastised as equivalently as he ultimately was, and millions of dollars of taxpayer money would've been saved!