Farmer from town called Gay having all kinds of problems with the government

By Patrick Hogan  |  September 25, 2015 | 3:50pm
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A Gay farmer is having a problem with the government: That is, a farmer from the city of Gay, in Georgia, is having a problem with the government.

Fox 5 Atlanta reports a farmer from the town had his application to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for a special interstate cattle transport license blocked because his town name contained an offensive word. And his town name only has one word in it, so no mystery there.

Gene King told Fox 5 his application was automatically blocked by the USDA’s computers because his town’s name was deemed by the system to have “bad connotations.”

For the record, the town of Gay (population, 87) was founded in the 1870s. Whether or not you consider “gay” to have a bad connotation is a matter of opinion, but the GLAAD media guide actually recommends using the word gay over homosexual.

The department sent Fox 5 a statement, explaining when the National Animal Identification System was developed in the early 2000s, the developers were concerned people opposed to the scheme would create offensive-sounding fake town names to sabotage it. So they coded a list of words that the system would automatically reject.

The agency gave King a work-around, telling him to resubmit his application, but label his town instead as “Bay,” with a comment attached saying his town is actually Gay. That way a USDA worker could manually change the name of the town once it was in the system.

Godspeed to all farmers in Intercourse, Pennsylvania and Cumming, Georgia.

 
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