How gay seafarer Dyosa Makista proved she's 'queen of the seas'

Contents:

• WELE TO GAY SABA, THE CARIBBEAN QUEEN
• GAY AND BEG A 'SAILOR'
• HOW GAY SEAFARER DYOSA MAKISTA PROVED SHE’S ‘QUEEN OF THE SEAS’
• GAY SLANG: A SECRET LANGUAGE THAT BEGAN AS AN ACT OF DEFIANCE
• MV GAY QUEEN
• PLAYG CUPID FOR A GAY FRIEND ON A (MOSTLY) STRAIGHT CISE
• JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU

WELE TO GAY SABA, THE CARIBBEAN QUEEN

(Image cred: Alamy)Fifty years ago, the Sexual Offenc Act beme law, crimalisg homosexual acts that took place private between two men over the age of 21. Fna Macdonald looks at a gay slang that beme a form of fiance. The secret language beme a kd of verbal wk between gay men Bra durg the early 20th Century – allowg them to hi and to reveal at the same time.

Yet the years when homosexualy was illegal, was a way of munitg public whout riskg arrt – as well as a chance to challenge the stat was a secret language that beme a kd of verbal wk between gay men Bra durg the early 20th Century (Cred: Alamy)Layerg upon layerg of different fluenc ensur that there is no one sgle versn of Polari but many versns – Pl Baker“It was a secret, spoken form of language, ed maly by groups of people who were on the margs of society and associated wh crimaly, ” says Pl Baker, a lguistic history expert at the Universy of Lanster and thor of Fantabulosa: A Dictnary of Polari and Gay Slang.

GAY AND BEG A 'SAILOR'

” Some of the words are what’s been lled ‘backslang' – hair is ‘riah’, and face is ‘eek’ (om ‘ef’) was taken up mic halls, Palarie beme associated wh gay men at the start of the 20th Century.

To make thgs more plited, Baker has seen a few ‘backronyms’, or fns applied after a word’s meang has evolved – such as ‘mp’ as g om ‘Known As Male Prostute’ 1967, the Sexual Offenc Act beme law, crimalisg homosexual acts that took place private between two men over the age of 21 (Cred: Alamy)Polari has s own vobulary for elements that mastream society is not terted – Pl BakerBaker believ Polari is a form of ‘anti-language’ – a term ed by the lguist Michael Halliday 1978 that Baker f as “a language ed by people who are on the ‘outsi’ of mastream society”. “Words relatg to gay sex or evaluatg male bodi – but also monstrat an alternative value system.

“It was sometim tght by olr, more tablished people on the gay scene as a way of iatg newer people to a mp worldview, ” says Baker. “Some gay men ed socially, to make one another lgh, sometim by nductg humoro arguments which volved clever sults Polari. “A word like ‘bona’ didn't jt mean good, meant good by the valu of the gay subculture.

HOW GAY SEAFARER DYOSA MAKISTA PROVED SHE’S ‘QUEEN OF THE SEAS’

Even better, Saba has been a gay-iendly statn ever sce 1998 when we ran our first annual dive trip there.

This Dutch-herage island was one of the first Caribbean islands to regnize and support gay marriage.

Sce 1973 HE Travel has been offerg unique adventure tours for gay men, lbians and open-md iends and fay who enjoy tours wh a gay flair. But while the Netherlands, which 2001 beme the first untry to legalize gay marriage, has paved the wave for a queer royal to officially wear the crown, LGBTQ people have long been dog so unofficially.

GAY SLANG: A SECRET LANGUAGE THAT BEGAN AS AN ACT OF DEFIANCE

(The term “cut sleeve” remaed a Che phemism for male homosexualy for centuri. The liph’s sexualy has been the source of some bate: Acrdg to the French medievalist Évariste Lévi-Provençal, the phrase “hubb al-walad, ” found 16th-century historian Ahmed Mohammed al-Maqqari’s pendium "Nafh at-Tib" reference to Al-Hakam II, translat as a “preference for boys, ” though other scholars mata refers to paternal Medieval Europe scholar Francis Prado-Vilar wrote that knowledge of Al-Hakam’s homosexualy the urt of Córdoba “enuraged the ambns of the factns gathered around his much younger brother, Prce al-Mughira.

MV GAY QUEEN

”“In his youth his lov seem to have been entirely homosexual, ” queer studi scholar Louis Crompton wrote “Male Love and Islamic Law Arab Spa. Young as “​​the most proment homosexual figure the early morn perd. )“To the shock of many urtiers, the pair were monstratively affectnate to each other public, spe Jam’ var proclamatns agast homosexualy, ” Daniel Smh wrote “Love Letters of Kgs and Queens.

Frerick the Great of Pssia (1712 - 1786)Even his lifetime, this Pssian royal was wily mored to be a homosexual, though that term wouldn’t be ed till nearly 90 years after his years after the kg’s ath, his physician Johann Ge Rter von Zimmermann published a book which he sperately tried to dispel gossip Frerick had a “Grecian taste love. And rather than let that secret out, Frerick pretend to be gay, “so that he would ntue to appear virile and pable of sexual terurse, albe wh men. But he did ltle to obscure his sexualy: Sanssouci, his palace Potsdam, was filled wh homoerotic art and, across Europe, “l Potsdamists” beme slang for kg allegedly pursued the Veian philosopher Franc Algarotti and even famed French philosopher Voltaire, who lived wh him at Sanssouci, though ’s not certa if eher relatnship was Voltaire’s ath 1778, a mancript of his memoir tailg Frerick’s homosexual tennci tail was stolen and published the Netherlands.

”The archde spent the rt of his life secln at Klsheim Palace near Salzburg, where he died at the age of 76 1919, three years after his brother’s ath and one year after the Atro-Hungarian Empire was dissolved after the end of World War II of Buganda (1868 - 1903)Discsn of Uganda’s treatment of homosexualy ually settl on Print Yoweri Meveni’s “Kill the Gays” bill, but this 19th century kabaka, or kg, of Buganda allegedly had sexual relatnships wh men along wh his 16 1886, Mwanga II orred the btal torture and aths of dozens of urtiers and pag, wh many burned alive. “I hear there was homosexualy Mwanga’s palace, ” Meveni told a crowd of thoands on Martyr Day 2010, the Atlantic reported. So the publitn of Gale’s Global Encyclopedia of Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr, and Queer (LGBTQ) History is somethg I celebrate.

PLAYG CUPID FOR A GAY FRIEND ON A (MOSTLY) STRAIGHT CISE

In my encyclopedic entry on the Royal Navy, I show how the Navy has changed over the last s om beg an anisatn that once persecuted those spected of beg homosexual, often wreckg their liv, and for centuri even hanged such men. Ined, some people joed the Merchant Navy bee had a reputatn for beg a supportive and acceptant suatn, even though homosexual acts by crew remaed illegal until 1996. The Merchant Navy’s (relative) permissivens means there is no perceived need for gay-iendly polici.

JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU

“Cisg the Seas: Male Homosexual Life on the Swedish Amerin Le, 1950–1975. In the 14 years I have been the Marime Indtry I n hontly say Homophobic abe is somethg I have never enuntered.

People will argue that the jok uld be classed as Homophobic abe but until you have worked on a ship, they will never unrstand. Most notnally I disvered that was illegal to be gay on board Manx registered Ships. Gay culture has been a feature of seafarg life for centuri.

It is still a hidn one, even today when the Royal Navy actively recs gay sailors.