In that context and every one since in which I have hear that usage of "gay" as meaning "inferior" I am wholly clear that it was analogous to describing homosexuality as inferior to heterosexuality.

As the word originally meant something else, I don't think it is wholly clear that this new pejorative sense of Gay derives from its homosexual meaning, though as I said earlier the line might be a fine one. When did Gay come to mean homosexual? The grotesque effeminacy of Larry Grayson with his (admittedly ambiguous) catch-phrase What a gay day brought it to the popular (UK) conciousness, and one reads Here that the word entered broad use in the 1960s. There persists the notion that equates effeminacy with homosexuality (Nancy Boys, Fairies etc.) and I might allow that the pejorative use of Gay could imply such an effeminacy which is, in actuality, by no means guaranteed to be actually homosexual. Most of my Gay friends aren't effeminate in the slightest.

*

As for the UK - United Kingdom - one nation, I feel, however so diverse. There are as many different cultural identities & rivalries between counties as between countries, and the lines are never that clear anyway. All of my friends in Scotland are English; all of my Scottish friends live in England; I am a Northumbrian living in Lancashire & my name is Irish! Ultimately, a citizen of but two places: 1) My own skin and 2) The planet which gives it the atmospheric pressure to maintain its integrity. Where was I born? Some point in space and time that North Shields passed through away back in August 1961. A very different planet from that which we live on now, as the UK #1 for that month will attest:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I2cG-ed6hw

Isn't that the worst thing you've ever heard?