Birds must not be "gay" (??)

Australia:

"A school has banned the word "gay" from the classic Aussie song Kookaburra Sits In The Old Gum Tree. Students at Cheltenham's Lepage Primary in Victoria have instead been told to sing "Fun your life must be", the Herald Sun reports.

Principal Garry Martin said yesterday he taught the lyrics to grade one pupils using an old tape of the famous song. "It uses gay and I just suggested to kids, 'Nowadays that can mean different things, so let's just sing a fun old time'," he said.

"It was my decision to replace it. I guess that was hypersensitive of me." Mr Martin said some children used "gay" to bully others without knowing the meaning of the expression.

"Political correctness is to the fore in schools - what's appropriate and what isn't - and sometimes we rightly or wrongly err on the side of caution," he said.

Crusader Hillis, from gay and lesbian advocacy group the Also Foundation, said the ban was absurd. "Kids in schoolgrounds say 'That's so gay' and that's all fine. That's just the way that language is," he said.

Source

The "problem" verse is as follows:

Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree,
Merry merry king of the bush is he.
Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh, Kookaburra,
Gay your life must be!

Picture of a Kookaburra: