The LGBTQ+ muny is known for havg unique and creative ways of self-exprsn. One secret language began as an act of fiance agast an anti-gay society.
Contents:
- DICK LESCH’S GUI TO SEVENTI GAY SLANG
- THE GUYSEXUAL’S CY DICTNARY FOR GAY SLANG. WHAT’S THE SHELF LIFE OF A CLEARANCE SALE CLOTHG?THE GUYSEXUAL’S CY DICTNARY FOR GAY SLANG. WHAT’S THE SHELF LIFE OF A CLEARANCE SALE CLOTHG?
- POLARI: THE LANGUAGE GAY MEN ED TO SURVIVE
- GAY SLANG: A SECRET LANGUAGE THAT BEGAN AS AN ACT OF DEFIANCE
DICK LESCH’S GUI TO SEVENTI GAY SLANG
Dick Lesch, an early gay-rights activist, who is now his eighti, arranged to donate his old workg fil to the archiv of the New York Public Library. ”In 1959, when Lesch was twenty-four, he left his fay home, Kentucky, for New York Cy, where he found work as a pater, a bartenr, a rator, a journalist, and as the unpaid print of the Mattache Society, one of the first gay-rights anizatns.
When the Stonewall rts broke out, three years later, he was the only openly gay reporter on the scene, verg the event for a new gay-focsed magaze lled The a recent Friday eveng, Lesch’s buzzer rang. In 1959, he left Kentucky for New York Cy, where he beme the print of the Mattache Society, one of the first gay-rights anizatns. A py of a 1976 gay guibook, wrten by Lesch, along wh his origal typewrten mancript.
THE GUYSEXUAL’S CY DICTNARY FOR GAY SLANG. WHAT’S THE SHELF LIFE OF A CLEARANCE SALE CLOTHG?THE GUYSEXUAL’S CY DICTNARY FOR GAY SLANG. WHAT’S THE SHELF LIFE OF A CLEARANCE SALE CLOTHG?
“This rd file is great, ” he said, flippg through a set of four-by-six x rds on which Lesch had neatly typed out gay slang terms om antiquy.
POLARI: THE LANGUAGE GAY MEN ED TO SURVIVE
” Some of the fns were more nuanced: an “ntie, ” Lesch had wrten, was “an ageg or middle aged homosexual, offtim effemate character, ” or “a person of settled meanor who utns agast temperate acts. Lesch ed to llect mentns of the “homophile movement, ” a term that preced the morn gay-rights vobulary. Lesch holds up a plastic toy school b, ma the neteen-sixti by the Gay Toy Company.
GAY SLANG: A SECRET LANGUAGE THAT BEGAN AS AN ACT OF DEFIANCE
Photograph by Rebec FudalaNext up was Lesch’s llectn of magaz and newsletters, cludg After Dark (“Oh, bls you—they’re real llector’s ems, ” Bmann said); Christopher Street (“We have the archiv”); Female Mimics (“That’s fabulo”); the 1969 Time issue on homosexualy (“Cute”); and the monthly bullet for the Mattache Society. A 1971 issue of Gay featured an terview that Lesch had nducted wh a twenty-five-year-old Bette Midler.
Many untri around the world have their own versn of queer slang, om Brish gay slang rived om the rhymg slang Polari to beki – the Philipp’ queer language that borrows om a slew of sourc, cludg pop culture, Japane, Spanish, and the untry’s lol languag. While the gay slang terms and languag serve jt as much attentn, one article wouldn’t be enough to ver everythg.