Hallmark Is Takg the Gay Out of Christmas Carols

Contents:

• DON WE NOW OUR GAY APPAREL CHRISTMAS SWEATER
• DON WE NOW OUR GAY APPAREL LGBT UGLY CHRISTMAS SWEATER
• HALLMARK REPLAC THE WORD 'GAY' ON DECK THE HALLS HOLIDAY RATN
• DON WE NOW OUR GAY APPAREL CHRISTMAS SWEATER
• HALLMARK IS TAKG THE GAY OUT OF CHRISTMAS CAROLS
• DON WE NOW OUR GAY APPAREL CHRISTMAS CARDS
• HALLMARK IS RIGHT ABOUT THE WORD GAY
• DON WE NOW OUR GAY APPAREL T-SHIRTS

DON WE NOW OUR GAY APPAREL CHRISTMAS SWEATER

Hallmark remov the word 'gay' om Deck The Halls holiday ornament sparkg fury om ctomers Lyric om the 19th century rol has been changed to: 'Don we now our FUN apparel'Hallmark said today: 'When the lyrics to Deck the Halls were translated om Gaelic and published English back the 1800s, the word gay meant ftive or has multiple meangs, which we thought uld leave our tent open to misterpretatn. ' Published: 17:31 BST, 31 October 2013 | Updated: 17:31 BST, 31 October 2013 Hallmark has provoked outrage and ridicule om s ctomers after changg the words of a tradnal Christmal rol on a ftive gdy, red sweater ornament has dropped the word 'gay' for the word 'fun' the lyric om the 19th-century rol Deck The Halls. The origal le - 'Don we now our gay apparel' - has been altered by the Kansas-Cy based pany for s new le of holiday merchandise.

'Furthermore your ridiculo attempt at polil rrectns assum that homosexuals drs differently. 'Pl J Kettle Jr add: 'I am disturbed to hear that you have removed the long-standg word "gay" om your ornament. When the lyrics to "Deck the Halls" were translated om Gaelic and published English back the 1800s, the word "gay" meant ftive or merry.

DON WE NOW OUR GAY APPAREL LGBT UGLY CHRISTMAS SWEATER

Hallmark—“when you re enough to send the very bt”—has ed a stir by takg the “gay” out of Christmas. ” The pany dched the tradnal, “Don we now our gay apparel, ” bee many ntexts, gay means ‘homosexual, ’ replacg wh “Don we now our fun apparel, ” which Hallmark felt would be more acceptable to a general dience that clus pdish adults, imprsnable children, and fundamentalists.

Acrdg to the Los Angel Tim, Hallmark ially rpond to crics of this move by argug that the words “gay apparel” were not necsarily thentic to beg wh, but rather translatns om a Gaelic origal, so they uld be replaced by other, synonymo words. The pany sisted that, sce “gay” today means somethg different om what meant the neteenth century, that “uld leave our tent open to misterpretatn.

HALLMARK REPLAC THE WORD 'GAY' ON DECK THE HALLS HOLIDAY RATN

” In other words, even though the Supreme Court says same-sex marriage is nstutnal, Hallmark didn’t want to be seen by nservative ctomers as endorsg a gay agenda. The joke that the pany tried to expla away s attempt to take the “gay” out of Christmas by referrg to a Gaelic origal? In 1862 the Sttish poet Thomas Oliphant took the tune of the Welsh Nos Galan, a New Year’s song that had nothg to do wh Christmas, boughs of holly, or any kd of clothg, gay or otherwise, and put his own words to , creatg what would then bee one of the most popular Christmas rols.

When Oliphant wrote “don we now our gay apparel” he surely meant somethg like ‘brightly lored, ftive’ clothg. But gay had other meangs too. As early as Chcer’s day, gay uld mean ‘lasciv, ’ and by the sixteenth century uld refer to someone who was dissolute, wanton, flamboyant, or unhibed.

By the neteenth century gay uld serve as a phemism for prostutn.

DON WE NOW OUR GAY APPAREL CHRISTMAS SWEATER

None of the rnchy or negative nuanc stopped Oliphant om g gay “Deck the Halls. By the 1930s the Uned Stat, gay also began to acquire a slang sense referrg to homosexualy.

Neteenth-century children might snicker thkg gay referred to libert or prostut, but they were still allowed to sg about “gay apparel. Gog gay: In “Brgg Up Baby” (1938), Cary Grant, playg a nerdy archeologist, los his patience as he explas why after a long seri of mishaps he’s wearg a woman’s drsg gown: “I jt went gay, all of a sudn.

The OED c this as an example of an early homosexual reference for the term, though also c earlier by Gert Ste and Noel Coward dated 1922 and 1929, rpectively.

HALLMARK IS TAKG THE GAY OUT OF CHRISTMAS CAROLS

Hallmark is not the first to take gay out of “Deck the Halls. ” An alternative versn of “Don we now our gay apparel” has been circulatn for some time: “Fill the mead-cup, dra the barrel” (John Hullah, The Song Book, 1884).

But apparently ’s more acceptable today to refer explicly to dnkenns a rol often sung by children than is to risk implyg homosexualy. Hallmark’s actn also suggts that gay has bee so associated wh homosexualy that n no longer reta s earlier sense of ‘bright or ftive. Hallmark shunned gay bee of s sexual nnotatn.

DON WE NOW OUR GAY APPAREL CHRISTMAS CARDS

But the fact that gay has been embraced recent years both by the gay muny and by English speakers general as a posive, non-taboo synonym for homosexual mak even more likely for the word’s other primary sense, ‘bright, ftive, ’ to fall to dise. Wh the transformatn of a negative term for homosexual to a posive one, we’re ls likely to ll clothg gay (Don we now our gay apparel), or to e the word as a synonym for ‘happy’ (Dpe all this ra, I still feel kd of gay), for fear of beg misunrstood, or unrstood only too well by the middle school set. Compoundg gay avoidance is s latt slang transformatn: llg somethg, or someone, gay n signal 'that's unol.

HALLMARK IS RIGHT ABOUT THE WORD GAY

' The OED trac this e of gay, which labels chiefly U. Apparel n be gay, grammatilly, and n be funny, they would surely say, bee funny is the adjective, though funny is not what Hallmark means here. The pany further "explaed" why chose fun to replace gay:.

We’re donng our gay apparel, and we’ll be full celebratn mo ’til the New Year. This is the time of year to not jt get merry, but get really gay. Come cheer on wh , and you’ll have a better Don we now our gay apparel Christmas sweater.

”That’s an alln to the le om “Deck the Halls”: “Don we now our gay apparel. ” But gay don’t mean what did the 19th century, when the rol’s words were wrten. ‘gay’ still means happy -- joyful -- I refe to let the word [be] hijacked by the same-sex relatnship muny, ” one Facebook menter wrote on the pany’s wall Thursday.

DON WE NOW OUR GAY APPAREL T-SHIRTS

Hallmark is apologizg the face of an onle backlash agast s cisn to replace the word “gay” on a Christmas sweater — you know, “Don we now our gay apparel” — wh the word “fun. ” CNN anchor Carol Costello was one of the more proment crics to acce Hallmark of anti-gay bias.

“Homophobic? ” At Jezebel, Ldy Wt mocked the pany for changg the word even though “‘gay’ is not a slur, everyone knows what ‘gay’ means the ntext of ‘Deck the Halls, ’ and beg close proximy to the word ‘gay’ will not turn your ltle children to ltle gay guys.