I hesitated to post but decided to. If this is an honest forum to consider even constructions which are not PC, then here you go.
This is used ALL the time in speech. It’s too “gay”. It’s never written but is the common man’s tongue for sappy.
Please direct all hate mail to op.
Update.
I just know I'm in trouble, but here it goes again. Sappy definitely doesn't mean gay, but gay can mean sappy. Doesn't make sense does it. While “gay”, generally, is used to indicate effeminate behavior, it’s not always so.
With Yankee “recreational” colloquial speech an analogy/term/phrase (the excessive use of which a British speaker would describe as “you know, the way Americans speak”) can mean a 100 things. It is SO contextual. If you were in a conversation with a Yankee, and he said, “Oh that’s just too gay”, it could mean: it’s outrageously colorful, the wrist is too limp, the product is flimsy, the hair style is over-the-top, excessive whimpering … and on forever. It'not generally a plus.
For example; I’m in bar and a friend orders a drink with a parasol stuck in the ice cubes. I guarantee you someone would say, “Man, that’s just too gay!” (in this case he’s saying it’s effeminate). And it’s just as likely, if we are with the girls, a female would say it. Many times when the phrase is used “man up” is sure to follow. And if a woman orders that same drink, she too might be subject to the same quip.
Or let’s say we’re discussing a friend that is too emotional or “sappy”. I might reply that, “Yah, he’s just too gay.”
The use of the word gay in the contexts described has nothing directly to do with homosexuality, even thou it is commonly used to describe a male homosexual. (If you do want to be insulting years ago you would have used gay, but now one would use the word “fag” or “faggot” (which, when I was in England, meant cigarette).
Is the word pejorative? I find it’s usually used in teasing one’s friends. But like all this kind of nonsense it can mean anything. You really have to be THERE; in other words you can't really use it in prose... unless you are a really good writer.
The Flintstones used to own this word, then the homosexuals did, but now the common man does again, albeit with a different meaning. (It doesn't mean happy anymore - and is never used that old way.)
Again, all hate mail to the OP.