The secret gay language you’ve probably never heard of... - BBC Three

Contents:

• POLARI: THE LANGUAGE GAY MEN ED TO SURVIVE
• THE FOTTEN SECRET LANGUAGE OF GAY MEN
• THE EFFECTS OF HOMOSEXUALITY LANGUAGE ON LESBIAN AND GAY PEOPLE’S WELL-BEING
• GAY LANGUAGE: DEFYG THE STCTURAL LIMS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE THE PHILIPP
• THE SECRET GAY LANGUAGE YOU’VE PROBABLY NEVER HEARD OF...
• FROM CLOSET TALK TO PC TERMOLOGY : GAY SPEECH AND THE POLICS OF VISIBILY
• A SECRET GAY LANGUAGE HAS GONE MASTREAM THE PHILIPP
• USAGE OF GAY LINGO AMONG MILLENIALS AS A WAY OF COMMUNICATING
• HOW TO SAY GAY DIFFERENT LANGUAG
• GAY FURRY HACKERS ARE TARGETG US STAT FOR PASSG ANTI-TRANS LEGISLATN
• JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT PUBLICLY AS GAY
• THUNR WAIVE RUDY GAY
• FILIPO GAY LGO EXPLAED FOR THE RT OF THE WORLD
• PROCEEDGS OF THE FOURTH PRASASTI INTERNATNAL SEMAR ON LGUISTICS (PRASASTI 2018)HOMEPREFACEARTICLTHORSSSNSANIZERSPUBLISHG RMATN<PREV ARTICLE IN VOLUMENEXT ARTICLE IN VOLUME>GAY LANGUAGE BALI (SOCLGUISTICS STUDY ON HOMOSEXUAL AND BISEXUAL MEN BALI)

POLARI: THE LANGUAGE GAY MEN ED TO SURVIVE

”That may seem like a strg of nonsense words om Dr Sss’s The Cat the Hat or Anthony Burgs’s A Clockwork Orange but ’s a real-life greetg gay men the UK would say to each other the 1950s and 60s. Language may be ambiguo reference, so that the rear is uncerta about s meang or s cln and excln creria; and the term homosexualy has been associated the past wh viance, mental illns, and crimal behavr, and the negative stereotyp may be perpetuated by biased language.

The terms lbian sexual orientatn, heterosexual sexual orientatn, gay male sexual orientatn, and bisexual sexual orientatn are preferable to lbianism, heterosexualy, homosexualy, and bisexualy.

Lbian and gay male are preferred to the word homosexual when ed as an adjective referrg to specific persons or groups, and the terms lbians and gay men are preferred to homosexuals ed as nouns when referrg to specific persons or groups. Likewise, is eful that women and men not be nsired "oppos" (as "oppose sex") to avoid polarizatn, and that heterosexual women and men not be viewed as oppose to lbians and gay men. Maral stat per se is not a good ditor of habatn (married upl may be separated, unmarried upl may live together), sexual activy, or sexual orientatn (a person who is married may be a gay or lbian relatnship wh a partner).

THE FOTTEN SECRET LANGUAGE OF GAY MEN

Vada (“look at”), dolly eek (a pretty face), and chicken (a young guy) are all words om the lexin of Polari, a secret language ed by gay men Bra at a time when homosexualy was illegal. Durg the terim years, when beg openly non-straight brought the risks of social isolatn and crimal prosecutn, Polari provid gay men wh a subtle way to fd one another for pannship and sex. In the late ‘60s, as gay liberatn groups were fightg for regnn and equaly, Polari h mastream Brish pop-culture the form of Julian and Sandy, two flamboyant, not-officially-but-pretty-obvly gay characters on a BBC rad show lled Round the Horne.

Dolan brgs up the pot that gay men shouldn’t have to be “straight-actg” orr to be accepted: “Might not be more fun to embrace a b more mp and actually have fun wh ourselv and wh each other?

Prev rearch has found that exposure to the label “homosexual” vers “lbian and gay” ed heterosexual dividuals to feel ls support for LGBTQ policy and more negative attus toward same-sex sexualy. It was ls than fifty years ago Bra that engagg homosexual sex, lookg a b 'gay' or fallg love wh the wrong person ma you a were no legal protectns for gay people as there are now...

THE EFFECTS OF HOMOSEXUALITY LANGUAGE ON LESBIAN AND GAY PEOPLE’S WELL-BEING

Depuis l’époque où l’homosexualé éta synonyme perversn, voire dél, jqu’x actuell gay pris, la munté gay, lbienne, bisexuelle et transgenre n’a csé développer un langage distctif, le gayspeak. Milant tout tant que ludique, ce langage se vt également le défensr d’un certa style vie, cherchant à exprimer, manière la pl visible, poliquement rrecte et effice qui so, la richse s portements et s cultur du mon gay. Sce the tim when homosexualy was a perversn to today’s vibrant Pris, gayspeak has been ed to exprs the needs of a group which, feelg socially reprsed, revented and subverted language.

2Funny and provotive as may seem, this msage posted on Kks & Queens, a gay Swedish webse, not only reveals a visibily and culture that the Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgenr muny was long pelled to hh, but also nfirms the existence of a lexin not que like standard English. From the darker ag when homosexualy was at s bt a s and/or a perversn until the prent environment of rabow flags and gay pris, gayspeak has been ed to transgrs social norms, articulate particular needs and emotns, as well as renstct, or re-terpret, realy. When to elaborate polilly rrect fns of the « queer » universe, pk talk displays an extraordary plexy of sexual orientatns and subcultur, a possible means to pensate for lguistic ficiency and to claim a gay space on the social spectm.

GAY LANGUAGE: DEFYG THE STCTURAL LIMS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE THE PHILIPP

Most male homosexuals therefore kept their sexual orientatns very much the closet unls amidst their k when they lled each other female nam—« Miss Kten », « Cha Mary », « Primrose Mary », and « Dip-Candle Mary »3—, a practice still faiar among ntemporary gay men. Until World War Two, rearch on what was then labeled the « language of homosexualy » foced on genr versn, wh homosexualy beg regard as a pathology characterized as sexual viance or perversn: whereas heterosexual language equated wh the appropriate genr, homosexual language displayed equent aquaci between the physil genr and the lguistic genr of the speaker.

In the reprsive and secury-ncerned Cold War environment4, to talk about themselv, most gays and lbians relied upon phemisms such as « iends of Dorothy(‘s) », (after The Wizard of Oz, 1939, a classic mil popular wh gay dienc), « whoopsi », « (s)he’s is a ltle...

Dpe the achievements of gay rights, the stigma attached to a « love that dare not [always] speak s name », to quote Osr Wil, ocsnally lgers the way some gays e « them » to refer to their partners and « refully word speech to hi explic genr referenc »16. For many Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgenr—or LGBT17—people today, pk talk works as a hive force agast discrimatn, although they also adm that gay exprsns have actually shifted om the physil nfement of the 18th century molly ho to a lguistic nfement. 5Sce 1993 [, ] the Amerin Universy Washgton DC has been home to annual nferenc on Lavenr Language and Lguistics, wh Lavenr19 Language beg fed as the way « lbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgenred persons and queers e language everyday life »20.

THE SECRET GAY LANGUAGE YOU’VE PROBABLY NEVER HEARD OF...

Maclan English dictnary explas that « Lavenr language functns as a kd of homosexual , characterized by acronyms, plays on words and double meangs only tend to be unrstood by the gay muny »22. Leap mentned two other « betiful exampl »: whereas gay speech « pcher » intifi the sexually active dividual and « tcher » the receptive person, « If we say pcher or we say tcher, an ordary nversatn, I thk ’s unlikely that [straight people] would read anythg else to . 6Conceived to exprs the needs of a socially reprsed group, Polari was also, as Profsor Baker explas, « a form of humour and mp25 performance, … a way of iatg people to the gay or theatre subculture »26.

Polari was never signed to pe notice, but was often nontative: ‘Even when travellg the sgular, we weren’t averse to shriekg a quick get you, girl at some menacg naff27… We flnted our homosexualy.

FROM CLOSET TALK TO PC TERMOLOGY : GAY SPEECH AND THE POLICS OF VISIBILY

Whereas some lbians tend to speak at a lower pch than straight women—and their range of pch is lser than that of straight women29—the typil high pched disurse and adorned talks of some gay men, not necsarily of the effemate type, is another equent give-away. Food metaphors are not unmon, such as seafood (gay sailors) and related sailor queens (men whose primary tert is sailors), tuna (young gay sailors), jam (younger men), angel food (gay men the air force), rice queens (men attracted to Asians), ernment spected meat (a gay man the armed forc) to be found meat racks (gay male cisg areas). Animal imag clu studs (mostly, although not necsarily, Ain-Amerins butch), (kissg) fish (young gay women), bears (hairy and overweight men), and chicken hawks (olr men lookg for younger men).

A SECRET GAY LANGUAGE HAS GONE MASTREAM THE PHILIPP

Apts of the Scene (the gay club circu) attend whe parti, where Amy-Johns (after Amazons), lipstick lbians35 (stylishly drsed a tradnally feme way), and chapstick lbians (who do not wear make-up and are very much to sports)36 meet wh leather dyk, tomboys, and lemons (lbians). As for gym bunni/queens (gay men who work out a gym), and mcle Mari (more effemate gym queens) who are a h among mcle queens (men who prefer mcular men), they will jo flamers (effemate gay men), baby Crocketts (psdo-wboys), and label queens (signers’ fashn victims)37.

9Probably more self-nscns than provotn, today’s gay lexin not only f an inty different om the norm but also prov the aspiratn of homosexuals to be visible wh a larger straight society. As Julia Stanley ntend 1970 her article « Homosexual Slang »38, was a way to celebrate group bondg through a mon—and dynamic—way of speakg, even though few members of the muny spoke . The yearly gay pris which take place most Amerin ci, the midst of ribbons, lorful paras, and mil shows, are a clear signal, as the name dite, that there is pri beg members of the « fay », a term the gay muny sometim appli to self39.

USAGE OF GAY LINGO AMONG MILLENIALS AS A WAY OF COMMUNICATING

In the 1970’s, rearch on language and homosexualy likewise beme more foced on how and by whom this specialized lexin was ed, a differentiatn the pre-Stonewall era had hardly promoted. In this ebullience, Bce Rodger’s landmark The Queen’s Vernacular was released (1972), followed, to mentn jt a few, by Joseph Hay’s « Gayspeak » (1976) and « Language and Language Behavr of Lbian and Gay Men » (1978‑1979), Leonard R. Pl Baker himself, who has nducted terviews among the Brish LGTB populatn, rearched gay archiv and d gay and lbian chats on the ter, released Fantabulosa: A Dictnary of Polari and Gay Slang 200242, wh 1, 700 entri rived om terviews, archiv, and gay and lbian web chats43.

HOW TO SAY GAY DIFFERENT LANGUAG

The ter has s share, upon which the prent study has been partially based, such as the onle Dictnary of Gay Slang and Historil Terms, Flampeak, Queer Slang the Gay 90, Rebec Stt’s A Brief Dictnary of Queer Slang and Culture (1997), Matt & Andrej Koymasky’s GLTB Slang Dictnary (last updated 2005), and Robert Owen Stt’s prehensive Wizard Gay Slang Dictnary (last updated 2003)44.

Whereas the 1960s gay and lbian scholars took a stake the polil advancement of homosexuals, directly enuragg the olr generatn to e the Lavenr language, gay youths cid to avoid what they nsired a relic of the past ( England, some claimed Polari to be « silly, femisg and outdated »45).

GAY FURRY HACKERS ARE TARGETG US STAT FOR PASSG ANTI-TRANS LEGISLATN

In the mid-1970s and 1980s, however, the divisns between homosexuals flated, strengtheng the hn of the muny as well as a new approach of homosexualy which was fed terms of opprsed mory inty: after the manner of Ain-Amerins who promoted Black English vernacular, LGBT people found logil to adopt a specific language, although as we noted before, gayspeak has always been more a lexin than a language wh s proper grammatil and phonologil l. Sce the late 1980s, the inty-based mol of homosexualy has been s turn challenged, for beg excsively foced on rpectabily, th excludg some margal liftyl—sadomasochists, workg-class femme lbians, Ain-Amerin drag queens, and bisexuals—wh the gay muny self.

In an effort to reawaken the spir of activism om the post-Stonewall era, Queer Natn adopted a somewhat nontatnal approach and purposely ed the word queer for s shock value while rejectg the term gay, which for some had bee too mastream49. First ed to scribe the participants New York drag balls the 1890s, fa(i)ry beme a mon pretg term the 20th century ed to qualify effemate gays ( the mid-1900’s fairy ladi was applied to femme lbians)58. It was possibly rived om the French fagot, a bundle of sticks and twigs bound together, ed for burng heretics and wch at the stake, or om an abive term for women, or reference to younger boys who performed duti for senrs Brish public schools, where homosexualy was viewed as enmic.

« The label ‘homosexual’ », Norton explas, « stead of beg generated by society to ntrol people, was self-generated by gay (or gay-iendly) men to empower dividuals and set them on the road to eedom rather than enslavement »62. The existence of the term lbian probably acunts for such perceptn, as do the ep-rooted belief that homosexualy was mostly a male phenomenon (studi and reprsive legislatns have been mostly about gay men). Whereas the neteenth century gay signated male and female prostut65, is now advantageoly displayg LGBT flamboyance, wh ls technily than the term homosexual and wh an assuredly ls explic lk between sexual activy and gay inty regardls of the genr66.

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT PUBLICLY AS GAY

Gay and bisexual women who chat on the Inter or post personal ads do on s wh nam such as The Gay History of Pla Earth onle self has clearly specified that « the word ‘gay’ is ed throughout [their] se reference to women and men who form erotic same-sex relatnships »67. 18Women-only events, lbian clubs, dyke bars, Girlz n, gay women nights, women-to-women chat rooms, goln girls webs: termology unts que a few ems to scribe the lbian world, not to mentn those displayg the variety of lbian inti. Whereas today they are regularly lled « girls’ girls » or « women-lovg-women » (WLW), the way gay men are lled « men-who-have-sex-wh-men » (MSM)70, «  mid-eighteenth-century discsns of lbians », Norton noted, people ed « abstract phras such as ‘feme ngrsn’ » or phemisms such as « vic Irregulari », « unacuntable timaci », « unmon and preternatural Lt », « unnatural Appet both Sex », and « abomable and unnatural pollutns »71.

THUNR WAIVE RUDY GAY

The revival of butch/femme upl giv room to a renewed terpretatn of role-playg, such as « butch the streets, femme the sheets », or wh upl as « butch-on-butch and femme-on-femme »90, relatnships sometim referred to as homogenr (butch-butch). 22The fluctuatg rol wh the gay female muny somehow outdat the strict separatist polics of the 1970s, when femists started g words like wimm and womyn li of a patriarchal wo-men98 (as for the summer Michigan Womyn’s Mic Ftival99), or when they found the New York Lbian Herstory Archiv. 100 Whatever the ntroversy such cisns have generated wh the lbian muny, the diversy of appellatns gay women e and vent for themselv are sound evince that they n also be enanchised om imposed tegorizatns.

Adopted by the majory of gay muny centers most English-speakg untri 2004, the term LGBT actually clus more subtle subcultur than jt « lbian, gay, bisexual, or transgenred/trans(s)exual »105. Whereas most LGBT people are clear (100% gay) or as pk k (very obvly gay, a mid-90s age), some are eyeballg the back of the closet door (not que out of the closet)115, straight actg/appearg (or s/a, s/a/a), and even ytergays (intifyg as gay the past, but no longer so). Bisexuals, ed, range om bi-possible (who uld be persuad to be bisexual), bicur (heterosexuals who wish to « experiment » wh their sexualy), LUG, GUG or BUG (« Lbian/Gay/Bisexual Until Graduatn », i.

27The sometim rogatory slang ephets applyg to bisexuals, such as AC-DC (for « alternatg/direct current ») by heterosexuals, or fence-sters or double-gaed by gays and lbians, nnot a « betrayal » of one’s hetero- or homosexual inty, as well as a reluctance to m onelf to a sexual orientatn116.

FILIPO GAY LGO EXPLAED FOR THE RT OF THE WORLD

Unls the person drops a hairp (giv a clue they are gay), he or she might jt be a breer (a heterosexual), which the unfortunate gay will ll scenery, sce the only thg they n do is « S back and enjoy the scenery ». Heterosexuals, then, e such variety as metrosexuals (fashnable urban heterosexual men), who share a gay athetic for their hip appearance wh guppi and luppi (gay/lbian urban profsnals), or, nversely, beige (sipid, anti-fab) and naff (« Normal As Fuck », i. Wh NBC’s Will & Grace, HBO’s Six Feet Unr, and Showtime’s Queer as Folk and The L Word now accsible to mastream dienc, heterosexuals might learn the basics of munitg wh, or unrstandg homosexual « speakers ».

Probably bee this specific part of the muny life had been—and to some extent still is—nmned by society, gays have nsistently relied upon specific vobulary to exprs the « unspeakable ».

PROCEEDGS OF THE FOURTH PRASASTI INTERNATNAL SEMAR ON LGUISTICS (PRASASTI 2018)HOMEPREFACEARTICLTHORSSSNSANIZERSPUBLISHG RMATN<PREV ARTICLE IN VOLUMENEXT ARTICLE IN VOLUME>GAY LANGUAGE BALI (SOCLGUISTICS STUDY ON HOMOSEXUAL AND BISEXUAL MEN BALI)

From the reprsive tim when homosexualy was nsired a felony to the prent variety of genr inti and queer subcultur, hundreds of exprsns—puns, phemisms, metaphors, word-age, and semantic shifts—have been ed and are now listed specific dictnari, evince of how LGBT people assert their distctivens and munite creative ways. For some members of the muny, this pk talk (or queer lexin, queer/queenspeak, lavenr language, or gayspeak—whatever the name) works as a d munitn centered mostly on sex-related issu as well as sexual tegorizatn.

« Polari, an aggregate of gay varieti found Great Bra, wh sailors and marime personnel speakg the que differently om the persons associated wh the theater or some other more upsle profsn ». 17 This acronym will be ed throughout this study, although the « Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgenr » world prehends a wir multiplicy of muni and liftyl, as will be tailed later, than what those four words seem to dite. 37 The referenc this paragraph are to be found the different onle gay dictnari and glossari, as well as more general onle wordsearch portals, all of them featurg the « Onle Dictnari » sectn of the biblgraphy.

121 « Recent studi have shown that, on average, lbian and gay youth first bee aware of their same-genr attractns at an average of 9-10 years old and first intify as lbian or gay at an average of 14-16 years old ».