The Grammarphobia Blog: Everyone here is ightfully gay

Contents:

• IN SEARCH OF THE LOST TIME OF A GAY JEWISH NOVELIST
• EVERYONE HERE IS IGHTFULLY GAY
• OY VEY! MY SON IS GAY!!

IN SEARCH OF THE LOST TIME OF A GAY JEWISH NOVELIST

Are we gay people?

EVERYONE HERE IS IGHTFULLY GAY

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. Acrdg to the ter, “queer” first beme an antigay slur durg the trials of Osr Wil. 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.

OY VEY! MY SON IS GAY!!

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. “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. People wh inti outsi “gay, straight, or bi” feel reprented by “queer.

Homo. “Homo” is still a slur to many gay men, but jt as “queer” beme a power term, “homo” has seen a recent surge populary.