question about the words that have double meanings.

Gay doesn't mean overly excited, does it?

Gay = bright, colourful, possibly?

"They decorated the room in gay colours."

Gay= happy? cheerful?

I've not heard it used to describe someone as being over excited, though.

"Gus pulled the lever on the slot machine, and came over all gay as he hit the jackpot" - Nah....

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/gay

1 a : happily excited : MERRY <in a gay mood> b : keenly alive and exuberant : having or inducing high spirits <a bird's gay spring song>
2 a : BRIGHT, LIVELY <gay sunny meadows> b : brilliant in color

What LE said...

If the person is a homosexual and you called him a gay fcker at work during his yearly review, the judge would look at it one way.

If you are asking for a divorce because your spouse is gay, as in overly excited, the judge will laugh his ass off and tell you to get lost but leave the kids with your spouse.

If you print in the paper and profess around town that someone is gay and they sue you for libel/slander the judge will likely use his considerable education and judgement to determine if you're so stupid as to think he's gonna fall for the old "I meant he's really happy."

In other words, it depends.

Many, many words have multiple meanings but communication is a two-way street when it comes to hate speech, which is what you are talking about. If I called you a gfhghjgihjghoj and in my mind I thought that was the worst insult imaginable, well, so what? You would not take it that way, at least, it's highly likely you would not.

If I called you gay and you laughed it off, it would also, I'd say, not be hate speech.

If I called you a gfhghjgihjghoj and you were insulted and lost your job because of it, it would be shading into hate speech, particularly with the job loss, because, if you could prove it, you would have an instance of a direct correlation between the word and the unfavorable result.

In the law, there are a number of shades of grey and damages aren't really necessary in the case of hate speech, but it does tend to make it easier to prove the case.