I want the word ‘gay’ back: Bob Katter, by Greg Brown.

Crossbench MP Bob Katter has lashed out at the gay community, accusing it of stealing “the most beautiful word in the English language” and warned the same was happening with marriage.

Mr Katter said he was furious that homosexuals and lesbians had “taken” the word gay, which used to mean happy. …

“It just conjured up a beautiful image, it was the most beautiful word in the English language, and (homosexuals) said, ‘oh God we will take that word and we will have it as ours’,” Mr Katter said.

“‘Oh they’ve got this thing called marriage, the other mob, we will take that too’. Well what else are they going to take? Are they going to take our freedom to say we don’t approve of what you are doing?”

Mr Katter acknowledged “some people were born that way” but he did not want gay people to take marriage the same way they took the word gay. …

“I don’t want them abrogating to themselves the right to take the most beautiful word in the English language and saying, ‘oh now that’s mine’,” he said.

“And then one of the most beautiful institutions in human history, marriage, and take that, and say ‘that’s mine’.

And then rainbows. The rainbow was recently stolen in a cynical PR campaign, so it now cannot be used anywhere without political and sexual connotations.

Now “gay” is often used as an insult. Eventually the words and icons taken by the homosexuals take on the PR characteristics of homosexuality. Will it ever end?