The Fotten Secret Language of Gay Men - Atlas Obscura

camp gay language

so bad ’s good. except ’s gay." name="Dcriptn" property="og:scriptn

Contents:

WHAT DO CAMP MEAN IN GAY TERMS

When gay and lbian people had to vent their own languag wh which to talk wh each other, mp led the way. * camp gay language *

This was the ght experience for many gay men, lbians, and others who intified as queer durg a time when same-sex sex was a crime.

Polari (or Parlary, Palarie, as ’s also known, om the Italian “to talk”) is one lost language om Bra that beme primarily associated wh gay men (and to a lser extent wh lbians).

THE FOTTEN SECRET LANGUAGE OF GAY MEN

* camp gay language *

Acrdg to Pl Baker, foremost lguistic expert Polari, this secret language, far om beg a lorful fad that jt fell out of fashn (before beg cryptilly revived by Bowie) was val to the many gay men who ed to munite wh each other unr the radar—at least until homosexualy stopped beg a crime the late sixti, renrg the secret language somewhat obsolete. It’s a phenomenon that seems to replite across different cultur, such as Bahasa Gay, a gay speech style of Indonia, which has ma s way to mastream Indonian life whout the public beg particularly aware that gay people even exist. The spreadg of the sorts of gay speech styl might be thanks to drag queens and other queer performers.

QUEER & GAY BERL: YOUR GUI FOR LGBTQ+ BERL

An troductn to Polari, the old Brish gay slang, cludg a word list. * camp gay language *

The above clip for example, om 1938’s screwball edy Brgg Up Baby, shows what is probably the first appearance of the word “gay” wh a cidly queer, cross-drsg meang a mastream movie. Ad libbed by the reputedly bisexual Cary Grant, mastream dienc would not have unrstood the slang term, and passed right unr the nose of the Hays Office, which strictly enforced the censorship of such unspeakable thgs as homosexual referenc film.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* CAMP GAY LANGUAGE

Polari - Brish gay slang .

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