The Fotten Secret Language of Gay Men - Atlas Obscura

Contents:

• THE 55 PHRAS GAY MEN MOST OFTEN GO THROUGH...
• SYNONYMS OF GAY
• THE FOTTEN SECRET LANGUAGE OF GAY MEN
• WORDS THAT NTA GAY
• HOW TO E GAY A SENTENCE
• GAY

THE 55 PHRAS GAY MEN MOST OFTEN GO THROUGH...

Aromantic Homosexual — A person who has sexual attractn to the same genr, but they do not experience romantic attractn. Gay is also an inty term ed to scribe a male-intified person who is attracted to other male-intified people a romantic, sexual, and/or emotnal sense. Homophobia — Homophobia means to have an irratnal fear or tolerance of people who are homosexual or havg feelgs of homosexualy.

LGBTQ+ — LBGT is an abbreviatn for lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (often ed to enpass sexual preference and genr inti that do not rrpond to heterosexual norms). LGBTIQAPD – Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr, Queer and/or Qutng, Intersex, Asexual and/or Ally, Pansexual, and Demi-sexual. Pri, formerly known as Gay Pri, is a regnn of LGBTQ inty, affirmatn of equal rights, and celebratn of visibily, digny, and diversy the LGBTQ muny.

SYNONYMS OF GAY

While the word homosexual is still ocsnally ed some ntexts, you might have noticed that don’t make an appearance any versn of the LGBTQ acronym. As our age note on the term stat, “up until 1973, homosexualy was listed The Diagnostic and Statistil Manual of Mental Disorrs (DSM), psychiatry’s standard reference on the classifitn of mental illns.

THE FOTTEN SECRET LANGUAGE OF GAY MEN

” In fact, the term homosexual was liberately rejected by early gay rights activists bee, acrdg to The New York Tim, “they did not want to be intified as exclively sexual begs. Gay, on the other hand, n be ed to scribe a person of any genr who experienc same-sex attractn, although is most often ed to scribe a man who is attracted to men. On June 28, 1969, the New York Cy police raid the Stonewall Inn, a bar equented by gay and genr-nonnformg people (at a time when terms like LGBTQ didn’t yet exist).

Partially rponse to Stonewall, 1970, queer activists New York Cy anized a march to Central Park wh the theme “Gay Pri. Queer lerally means “strange or odd om a nventnal viewpot, ” and by at least by the late 1800s, queer was ployed as a rogatory term for an effemate or gay man. GLAAD prefers that we don’t e the term homosexual bee ’s “aggrsively ed by anti-gay extremists to suggt that gay people are somehow diseased or psychologilly/emotnally disorred.

It’s OK to scribe someone you know who publicly self-intifi as gay, lbian, bisexual, or another sexual orientatn as out.

WORDS THAT NTA GAY

But, people who are gay, lbian, bisexual, or transgenr also re about a wi variety of other polil, social, and cultural issu.

I n fd ltle evince of this on the ter, but sce gay culture is passed down through hearsay and gossip, I’m cludg this. Some archivist or queer historian may rroborate or squash this ia, one I heard om a gay elr and pass on to you — that “queer” was actually the word preferred by the first wave of queens, h om the closet, sweatg word-of-mouth disthequ that migrated through the cy. So many zgers are rerd om those trials that this seems plsible: Sir John Douglas, the Marqus of Queensbury (serly), who first lled Wil a sodome and lnched the gay playwright’s epic mise, reportedly lled Wil a “snob queer” durg the proceedgs.

HOW TO E GAY A SENTENCE

A mon slogan you n still fd on T-shirts and queer bars across the untry is “Not gay as happy, but queer as ‘fuck you.

GAY

“Queer” addrs the fluidy of genr and sexual orientatn and f those who e as people foced on problems largely ignored by the gay rights movement: racism, wage equaly, women’s rights, transphobia, and so on.

“Homo” is still a slur to many gay men, but jt as “queer” beme a power term, “homo” has seen a recent surge populary. The word beme cemented antigay lgo wh the famo CBS Reports episo “The Homosexuals, ” which aired on March 7, 1967 (I would be born on the same day 25 years later).