The Fotten Secret Language of Gay Men - Atlas Obscura

Contents:

• POLARI: THE LANGUAGE GAY MEN ED TO SURVIVE
• GAY SLANG 101
• FILIPO GAY LGO EXPLAED FOR THE RT OF THE WORLD
• GAY SLANG: A SECRET LANGUAGE THAT BEGAN AS AN ACT OF DEFIANCE
• THE FOTTEN SECRET LANGUAGE OF GAY MEN
• HOW TO SAY GAY DIFFERENT LANGUAG
• SIGNS FOR GAY
• SI GUYS: THKG BEYOND GAY MALE "TOPS" AND "BOTTOMS"

POLARI: THE LANGUAGE GAY MEN ED TO SURVIVE

If gay life was a giant ballroom (and kd of is), kky leathermen have been lgerg the back, the shadows, for generatns. Long before hookup apps like Grdr and Scff, gay and bisexual men seekg sual sex wore lored handkerchiefs their pant pockets ditg what kd of sex they were seekg and whether they were a domant/top or submissive/bottom. The lor is pretty extensive and clus var kks and fetish, and is still ed today by gay clothg brands like Nasty Pig and CellBlock 13 — and, obvly, by kky gay men.

GAY SLANG 101

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. 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.

FILIPO GAY LGO EXPLAED FOR THE RT OF THE WORLD

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, 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).

They attempted to arrt the gay and trans bar patrons, which started a seri of protts agast the police.

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. 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.

Queer was seen as a way to refer to gays and lbians whout beg genr-sentialist or g divisns wh the muny. ”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. To avoid imprisonment, gay men ed Polari, a language that the Oxford English Dictnary says is “ma up of Italianate phras, rhymg slang and nt terms.

THE FOTTEN SECRET LANGUAGE OF GAY MEN

Ken Cage, Gayle: The Language of Kks and Queens, A History and Dictnary of Gay Language South Ai. Homosexualy, heterosexualy and bisexualy n refer eher to: feelgs of sexual attractn to another person, or to the actual sexual practice between people of the same genr. We remend that the terms homosexual or heterosexual never be ed isolatn, but always be intified as referrg to eher feelg or practic.

HOW TO SAY GAY DIFFERENT LANGUAG

Gays, lbians, soclogists, psychologists, human sexualy rearchers, members of liberal and some male fah groups e this term to dite a person's feelgs of sexual attractn to mal and femal. They believe that the term vers a wi range of feelgs and behavrs, cludg heterosexual or homosexual attractn to persons of the same age group, ct, polygamy, polyandry, btialy, and pedophilia.

Many nservative Christians do not acknowledge the existence of a bisexual orientatn, believg peopl' feelgs of attractn to be eher purely heterosexual or homosexual. Some people differentiate between homosexual and gay: homosexual is regard as a sexual orientatn; gay is a polil inty -- i.

Unfortunately, Polari’s orig story is fuzzy, as gay slang was not taken serly as a source of study until recently history.

SIGNS FOR GAY

” 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.

But if you were to drop the lgo “Sea Queen” a sual nversatn wh, say, some late 1800s gay sailors, is credibly likely that they will know exactly what you are talkg about. Humor is a potent munitn tool often ed gay slang as a good-natured and vert tactic of iatg new people to unrstandg the queer perspective.

The Black femme muny is a historilly powerful and fluential ntributor to the evolutn of gay slang. Gay slang, once a subversive exprsn of activism, has permeated the barriers of heteronormative culture time and time aga.

SI GUYS: THKG BEYOND GAY MALE "TOPS" AND "BOTTOMS"

Polari, and gay slang as is known and referenced today, exists bee s language is need as an act of fiance and cultural ristance agast the norm.

It’s nstantly evolvg d language formg durg hard tim when beg openly gay uld be dangero or crimalized. 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.