By John Mack Freeman
Gay, Georgia (a few hours away from where this writer lives) has apparently ended up on the USDA’s list of banned words. The situation is so ridiculous, here it is from Out:
A cattle farmer in Gay, Georgia, was denied a government issued transport license by the US Department of Agriculture because his hometown fell under a list of “words with bad connotations,” according to Atlanta’s Fox 5 report. That’s right: a federal office of the United States considers the word “gay” to be problematic… especially when cattle farmers are concerned.
According to the report, Gene King applied for a transport license to transport his cattle over state lines, and when he called to check on its approval status, King was informed that his application contained a banned word. A phone operator informed him that he should change his hometown to “Bay” on the form if he wished to transport his cattle. After refusing, King was still eventually able to move the cows. But the government was really weird about it.
The USDA is investigating how the word ended up on the problem list. Watch a report about the misunderstanding below:
