More Word Problems

Now that I think of it, I may have two odd complaints about homosexuals. Sometime in the seventies, before it had become the universal and exclusive property of the gay community, LA Times columnist Jack Smith expressed sorrow over the loss of the word gay. There isn't another word to replace it in English, it was a wonderful word, and while neither he nor I have anything against gays, it's a shame that the word can no longer be used except to refer to sexual choices.

While I've gotten used to not calling people gay who are just wonderfully happy and light, and never had much use for rainbows, there's another word I'd like to use but now can't. I've had friends most of my life, and family, too, some lovers and an ex-wife, and all that rot. But what if I want to have someone near me who would face things with me and share things, someone with whom I held a bond that went beyond friendship. For the same reason it sounds silly to call someone a girlfriend when you're both over thirty, friends have a connotation, too.

What is bothering me is that I can think of having someone like that, a partner in my life. But, I can't use that, either, because the PC people have grabbed partner to mean life partner, and that isn't what I mean at all.

How come they can't create new words to describe these things? If I were gay, I think I'd want a new word, if I were PC, I'd want an unsullied word to describe my new bland reality.

Aren't they worried that partners connote Western gun toters? Anyway, I should begin a list of once good words that have no been forced into postures. Gay is still a tough one to lose, and I wish they'd acknowldege the theft.