There's a long-ish
history of "gay" as meaning "unconventional," particularly in the realm of sexuality, however, it was more like "overly friendly," or "loose."
There was the other meaning of gay as "lighthearted" or "whimsical." Grace Barron, in Evan S. Connell's "Mrs. Bridge" novel, asks India Bridge not to be "gay" when she is trying to discuss something real with India. In the film,(Mr. and Mrs. Bridge,) Grace Barron was played by Blythe Danner Paltrow, and India Bridge was played by Joanne Woodward Newman.
Gertrude Stein was one of the first to use the subtext meaning of "gay" as "same sex attraction" in her very tender and somewhat funny (if you can read it at all!) story "Miss Furr and Miss Skeene."
I wish the "younger generation" had chosen some other word to mean "unappealing" or "unfashionable," but oh, well.
Lawrence/Maytagbear