I open the ‘Weekend Sun' at Rogers Rabbits page each week to have my Friday chuckle. On 9 November I discovered the subject was close to my heart. I'm so annoyed that my name has been stolen. Once upon a time the name Gay meant one was happy, bright and cheerful. As a child often people would remark to my parents that my name suited my personality. More recently I've had to re-word the way I introduce myself, for instance; instead of getting up at a meeting and saying.
‘Hello, I'm Gaye' I rephrase it to ‘Hello, my name's Gaye' I actually added the ‘e' on the end when it was claimed by our friends.
I wonder how many people who dance the ‘Gay Gordons' are Gay and if you pick up the book ‘Little Women' on the first page is written ‘My girls are a happy and gay lot.'
Cleaning out cupboards the other day I came across a dog -eared list of name suggestions for children. These are listed with their meanings and I found four that actually meant gay. They are Eleanor: Ellen: Fedora: Lucinda:
Why couldn't one of those become the title for our friends, or one of the other adjectives?
I don't know anyone named ‘Cheerful' I know a few people one might call ‘Bright' and only one dwarf named ‘Happy'.

Gaye Hemsley Katikati.