весёлый, радостный - это первое значение слова.
From the mid-20th century on, the term came to be used in reference to homosexuality, in particular, from the early 20th century, a usage that may have dated prior to the 19th century. The word had started to acquire associations of immorality by 1637 and was used in the late 17th century with the meaning "addicted to pleasures and dissipations." This was by extension from the primary meaning of "carefree": implying "uninhibited by moral constraints." A gay woman was a prostitute, a gay man a womanizer and a gay house a brothel. The use of gay to mean "homosexual" was in origin merely an extension of the word's sexualised connotation of "carefree and uninhibited", which implied a willingness to disregard conventional or respectable sexual mores. Such usage is documented as early as the 1920s, and there is evidence for it before the 20th century, ..(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay)
Основное значение слова подверглось сильным изменениям в течение 20-го столетия. Однако это изменение не было неожиданным — оно возникло из более ранних примеров сексуализированного использования этого слова (а именно, для обозначения проституции, «лёгкого поведения») . (
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Гей)