The Fotten Secret Language of Gay Men - Atlas Obscura

Contents:

• POLARI: THE LANGUAGE GAY MEN ED TO SURVIVE
• GAY SLANG 101
• THE FOTTEN SECRET LANGUAGE OF GAY MEN
• GAY SLANG: A SECRET LANGUAGE THAT BEGAN AS AN ACT OF DEFIANCE
• LEARNG GAY LGO: A STARTER GUI!
• SWARDSPEAK: THE COLORFUL LANGUAGE OF THE FILIPO GAY COMMUNY
• GAY SLANG

POLARI: THE LANGUAGE GAY MEN ED TO SURVIVE

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. 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.

GAY SLANG 101

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.”.

THE FOTTEN SECRET LANGUAGE OF GAY MEN

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). 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. ”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.

GAY SLANG: A SECRET LANGUAGE THAT BEGAN AS AN ACT OF DEFIANCE

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 "secret language" was ed heavily by gays the circ, navy, and theater, and arose out of the need to discs gay matters unr a clever guise, due to homosexual acts beg illegal Bra until the passage of the Sexual Offens Act 1967.

Here's some of the amg slang: Basket - the bulge of male genals through clothFantabulos-wonrfulEf - face (backslang) DollyEf - pretty face Chicken - a young guySome Polari words still exist morn gay slang. As gays began to fight for acceptance and rights, they ma a ncentrated effort to remove the Brish society's one-dimensnal view of all gays as beg overly mpy and effemate.

LEARNG GAY LGO: A STARTER GUI!

Check out Atlas Obscura pots out, Polari was a great self-performative outlet for Brish gays to not only exprs themselv but also easily intify and n wh fellow memebers of the queer muny.

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. In the 1930s was spoken among the theater typ of the Wt End, om which crossed over to the cy’s gay pubs, gag s stat as the secret language of gay men.

SWARDSPEAK: THE COLORFUL LANGUAGE OF THE FILIPO GAY COMMUNY

In England, homosexualy was officially nsired a crime until 1967, when the Sexual Offenc Act legalized private “homosexual acts” between nsentg adults over 21.

GAY SLANG

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. The Hidn History of Gay Life at Sea, Pl Baker and Jo Stanley wre that Polari played a role “allowg gay men to nstct a humoroly performative inty for themselv. 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.

By the early ‘70s, as LGBT groups fought for rights beyond those granted by the 1967 Sexual Offenc Act, the image of the mp gay man had bee the target of ire. When Ecclton and Fairbairn posted the film onle, they were surprised by the enthiastic rponse—and the level of fascatn wh Polari, this myster, cipherable “gay language. “The kds of nts still exist where opprsn is still entrenched, ” says Ecclton, cg Swardspeak, a language based on English and Tagalog that is ed among gay men the Philipp.

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? ” 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.

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. 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.

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 term sexual orientatn is preferred to sexual preference for psychologil wrg and refers to sexual and affectnal relatnships of lbian, gay, bisexual, and heterosexual people. The word preference suggts a gree of voluntary choice that is not necsarily reported by lbians and gay men and that has not been monstrated psychologil rearch.

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.

For example, scriptns of sexual behavr among animal speci should be termed male-male sexual behavr or male-female sexual behavr rather than homosexual behavr or heterosexual behavr. Although may seem cumbersome at first, is cleart to e the term lbians, gay men, and bisexual women or men when referrg clively to members of the groups.

Lbians, gay men, and bisexual men and women often feel ignored by the general media, which take the heterosexual orientatn of their rears for granted. 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).

Furthermore, scribg people as eher married or sgle renrs lbians, gay men, and bisexual persons as well as heterosexual people habg relatnships visible.