GAP does not mean *** and Proud

[Henry]

Yesterday, I heard this one: The GAP was started by a G a y man and the name means G a y And Proud.

: Once again the search for hidden meanings in the mundane has resulted in an interesting rumor about the supposedly acronymic origins of the name of a popular attirer. Akin to the Troop Sport ("To Rule Over Oppressed People") and Adidas ("All Day I Dream About xxx") canards, the rumor about The Gap asserts that it drew its name from an initialization of the phrase G a y And Proud."

Though The Gap did begin in San Francisco, a city home to a large homosexual population and strongly associated with G a y pride, its name has nothing to do with either of those coincident facts. Gap Inc. was founded in 1969 by Donald and Doris Fisher as a single store staffed by a handful of employees. The retailer took its name in homage to "the generation gap," a term popular in the late 1960s describing the intellectual, ethical, and social gulf between young people and their parents' generation. The inspiration for this first jeans-only store came from Donald Fisher's frustrations as a consumer