From Closet Talk to PC Termology : Gay Speech and the Polics of Visibily

Contents:

• CATNS GAY
• THE 55 PHRAS GAY MEN MOST OFTEN GO THROUGH...
• GAY SLANG: A SECRET LANGUAGE THAT BEGAN AS AN ACT OF DEFIANCE
• GAY SLANG 101
• GAY QUOT
• WHAT WORDS CAN I SAY TO DECLARE THAT I’M GAY?
• PHRAS WH «GAY CULTURE»
• GAY CULTURE SYNONYMS
• FROM CLOSET TALK TO PC TERMOLOGY : GAY SPEECH AND THE POLICS OF VISIBILY

CATNS GAY

La catn la pl longue sur « gay » t: « L dissints, par exemple l mecs qui sont dans le barebackg, qui disent no on vt toujours être subversifs, on ne se réclame pas Mylène Farmer mais Jean Ge (... 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. But the Onle Slang Dictnary c 1960s gay male culture as the earlit known source, particularly rtoonist Joe Johnson’s characters “Miss Thg” and “Big Dick”, which appeared early issu of The Advote.

In the 60s, Lesch was the print of a gay rights anizatn lled the Mattache Society and me up wh the “Sip-In” – a monstratn held at New York Cy bars that banned service to out gay people. 51 Don't ask, don't tell (Erroneoly thought to be a policy ncerng disclosure of homosexualy the US ary, actually what gay men mutter when terrogated about their age)50 You have five hours to stop lickg my face49 From Monday to Friday my body is a temple.

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

” Combg the vernaculars of sailors wh a mix of Cockney and Yiddish fluenc, gay men also began to throw a sprkle of classroom-level French to add eher sophistitn or an ironic tone of refement, whichever the speaker choos. Gay slang, origally born on the outskirts of society as a means of formg a secret nnectn between different members of varyg ostracized muni, is today rightly valued as a powerful cultural fluencer of how morn Wtern society evaluat and exam art, culture, and media.

As gay slang be more and more graed to the heteronormative lexin, is imperative to pay rpect by takg the time to unrstand that there have been centuri of folx who helped give vobulary to what was prevly unfed. 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. And many feel that this word plac undue emphasis on sexual activy, or that sounds overly clil.” 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 SLANG: A SECRET LANGUAGE THAT BEGAN AS AN ACT OF DEFIANCE

Partially rponse to Stonewall, 1970, queer activists New York Cy anized a march to Central Park wh the theme “Gay Pri.” A more prehensive history of the Stonewall Rt or the Stonewall Uprisg n be found our Pri Month explaer. " — David Carter, "Stonewall: The Rts That Sparked the Gay Revolutn""Every sgle Amerin — gay, straight, lbian, bisexual, transgenr — every sgle Amerin serv to be treated equally the ey of the law and the ey of our society.

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.

GAY SLANG 101

” Soon after, he published his study of early Christian mment ceremoni—Same-Sex Unns Premorn Europe—helpg to lay the groundwork for the morn gay-marriage movement and, ultimately, my own marriage. Boswell died of AIDS 1994—left for ad not by some townie gay bashers but by an entire natn different to the liv of men who have sex wh Simon 1991Raphael SimonI’ve been lled a faggot more than once, ways that no one would nfe wh flattery.

The Republin ernor of California, Pete Wilson, had jt vetoed a bill that would have protected gays and lbians om job discrimatn, and I was a graduate stunt at the Universy of California Irve. As turns out, while I was whg to my rosé about all the wokens my hoe, reactnary forc were gatherg, ready to send this untry back to a time when racism wasn’t talked about, trans kids suffered silence, and homophobia had yet to be named.

()All Rock n Roll is Homosexual: An eveng hosted by Alexis Petridis wh Jon Savage and Nicky Wire Wednday 29 Febary 2012, 7:30 pm Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall Ticket price: # 8 Mic journalist Alexis Petridis hosts an eveng explorg the extensive and sometim unexpected fluence of gay culture rock and roll and pop mic, wh pop mic wrer and cultural historian Jon Savage and Manic Street Preachers lyricist and bassist Nicky Wire. Defns for Gay (adjective) havg much high - spired energy and movement (adjective) havg or showg eedom om worri or trouble (adjective) ditive of or marked by high spirs or good humor GC abbreviatn GC is an abbreviatn for Gay Culture What do GC stand for?

GAY QUOT

GC stands for "Gay Culture" Defns for Culture (noun) a high level of taste and enlightenment as a rult of extensive tellectual trag and exposure to the arts (noun) the way people live at a particular time and place (verb) to look after or assist the growth of by labor and re. 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. 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.

WHAT WORDS CAN I SAY TO DECLARE THAT I’M GAY?

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.

PHRAS WH «GAY CULTURE»

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.

GAY CULTURE SYNONYMS

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. Acrdg to Bill Leap, the -ordator of the 2003 nference, homosexuals munite wh each other ways that are « different om the lguistic practic of non-lbian/gay-intified persons »21.

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 .

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

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. 7Apart om a specific lexin, gayspeak reveals self every time qualifiers like « adorable », « fab(ulo) », « glam(oro) », and « so cute », are employed by both gay men and women.

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).