Careful how you filter!!

From the current issue of The Advocate (Issue 1013 - August 26, 2008):

AFA Keeps Gay at Bay - By filtering "gay" from its news site, the conservative group becomes a laughingstock.

The American Family Association hates the word gay. The organization's distaste is so strong that it's online news site, OneNewsNow.com, filters gay out of all Associated Press articles and replaces it with the anachronistic descriptor homosexual. On June 29, Tyson Gay won the 100-meter trials for a shot at the Beijing Olympics, but because of the filter, conservative Christians everywhere read that "Tyson Homosexual" clocked in at 9.68 seconds in the premier sprinting event. The story's filtered version read: "Wearing a royal blue uniform with red and white diagonal stripes across the front, along with matching shoes . . . Homosexual dominated the competition. He started well and pulled out to a comfortable lead by the 40-meter mark." While blogs had a field day with OneNewsNow's error, the site quickly fixed the gaffe, and AFA spokeswoman Cindy Roberts told The Washington Post, "It was just a fluke." Maybe so, but it could cause OneNewsNow.com bigger problems than embarrassment - AP stipulates that it stories not be rewritten upon publication, and it has been going after websites for even small attempts at re-purposing original work. - Michelle Garcia.

Okay, don't you just love irony at work. I can just see some of the other flukes caused by the AFAs dislike of the word gay.

BenGay is the perfect cure for your aches and pains becomes . . . Ben Homosexual is the perfect cure for your aches and pain.

Marcia Gay Hardin becomes Marcia Homosexual - who knew? - Hardin.

The possibilities are endless in the whole scenario set up by the AFA. I mean, can we just put these people on an island somewhere? Then again, without such conservatives going to such extremes, there would be less people to laugh at in this world. Laughter is, after all, the best medicine. While the AFAs attempts to eliminate the word gay are kind of frightening; they seem to have gotten bit in the nether regions by their own homophobia. Again, irony at it's best.

I wish everyone a gay - homosexual if your part of the AFA - old time.

Scott