The Fotten Secret Language of Gay Men - Atlas Obscura

Contents:

• GAY SLANG: A SECRET LANGUAGE THAT BEGAN AS AN ACT OF DEFIANCE
• FILIPO GAY LGO EXPLAED FOR THE RT OF THE WORLD
• GAY (ADJ.)
• THE HISTORY OF THE WORD “GAY”
• HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI
• NFL ACH KEV MAXEN MAK SPORTS HISTORY BY G OUT AS GAY
• RACG TO PRERVE THE HISTORY OF MAE’S 1ST GAY RIGHTS ANIZATN
• "AS BLACK GAY PEOPLE, WE ARE SO OTHERED AT THE SENCE OF OUR BEG THAT HAS MAND A NEW LANGUAGE TO TERACT WH THE WORLD."
• DICK LESCH’S GUI TO SEVENTI GAY SLANG
• THE FOTTEN SECRET LANGUAGE OF GAY MEN
• GAY SLANG OM THE 1970S

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

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. Homosexualy remaed illegal across the Uned Stat the mid-twentieth century – that is, until Illois beme the first state to crimalize same-sex relatns 1962. In the 60s and 70s, gay men even had a “hanky ” – a system that volved wearg bandanas wh lors that signified whether you were a top, bottom, to BDSM, etc.

Judy Garland, who played Dorothy the film, was also a queer in who patronized gay bars and often surround herself wh queer iends. 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.

FILIPO GAY LGO EXPLAED FOR THE RT OF THE WORLD

Lesch scribed nti as “agg or middle-aged homosexuals, offtim effemate character” and people of “settled meanor who utns agast temperate acts”.

Another siar term, “light the loafers”, is a somewhat rogatory phrase that is ed to scribe someone who acts or appears to be gay. The drag fai beme a refuge for gay, trans, and genr non-nformg youth who were turned away by their own fai or experienced homelsns due to poverty. ” 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 (ADJ.)

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. 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.

THE HISTORY OF THE WORD “GAY”

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 is power, and gay slang is an important element of what is viewed as morn-day munitn and the validatn of the LGBTQ+ experience.

HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI

Kty puncher or psy puncher wh both kty and psy referrg to a woman's vaga and puncher a variatn on var rogatory terms for gay men like donut puncher et al. Grey queen, a gay person who works for the fancial servic dtry (this term origat om the fact that the 1950s, people who worked this profsn often wore grey flannel sus). Molly and tommy: In 18th century England, the term molly was ed for male homosexuals, implyg effemacy; Tommy, a slang term for a homosexual woman e by 1781, may have been ed by analogy wh molly.

NFL ACH KEV MAXEN MAK SPORTS HISTORY BY G OUT AS GAY

) begs to appear psychologil wrg the late 1940s, evintly picked up om gay slang and not always easily distguished om the olr sense:After discharge A. He was not happy at the farm and went to a Wtern cy where he associated wh a homosexual crowd, beg "gay, " and wearg female cloth and makp. 240]The associatn wh (male) homosexualy likely got a boost om the term gay t, ed as far back as 1893 Amerin English for "young hobo, " one who is new on the road, also one who sometim do jobs.

"A Gay Cat, " said he, "is a loafg laborer, who works maybe a week, gets his wag and vagabonds about huntg for another 'pick and shovel' job. Gay ts were severely and celly abed by "real" tramps and bums, who nsired them "an ferr orr of begs who begs of and otherwise preys upon the bum — as were a jackal followg up the kg of beasts" [Prof.

RACG TO PRERVE THE HISTORY OF MAE’S 1ST GAY RIGHTS ANIZATN

McCook, "Tramps, " "The Public Treatment of Pperism, " 1893], but some acunts report certa olr tramps would domate a gay t and employ him as a sort of slave. In "Soclogy and Social Rearch" (1932-33) a paragraph on the "gay t" phenomenon not, "Homosexual practic are more mon than rare this group, " and gey t "homosexual boy" is attted Noel Erske's 1933 dictnary of "Unrworld & Prison Slang" (gey is a Sttish variant of gay) "Dictnary of Amerin Slang" reports that gay (adj. Rawson ["Wicked Words"] not a male prostute g gay reference to male homosexuals (but also to female prostut) London's notor Cleveland Street Sndal of 1889.

"AS BLACK GAY PEOPLE, WE ARE SO OTHERED AT THE SENCE OF OUR BEG THAT HAS MAND A NEW LANGUAGE TO TERACT WH THE WORLD."

Ayto ["20th Century Words"] lls attentn to the ambiguo e of the word the 1868 song "The Gay Young Clerk the Dry Goods Store, " by U. [John Boswell, "Christiany, Social Tolerance, and Homosexualy, " 1980]As a teen slang word meang "bad, ferr, unsirable, " whout reference to sexualy, om (n. For centuri, gay was ed monly speech and lerature to mean happy, reee, bright and showy, and did not take on any sexual meang until the 1600s.

In the 1890s, the term “gey t” (a Sttish variant of gay) was ed to scribe a vagrant who offered sexual servic to women or a young traveler who was new to the road and the pany of an olr man. This latter e suggts that the younger man was a sexually submissive role and may be among the first tim that gay was ed implyg a homosexual relatnship.

In 1951, gay appeared the Oxford English Dictnary for the first time as slang for homosexual, but was most likely ed this way “unrground” at least 30 years earlier.

DICK LESCH’S GUI TO SEVENTI GAY SLANG

” This le (ad-libbed by Grant) n be terpreted to mean that he was behavg a happy-go-lucky or lighthearted way but is accepted by many as the first e of gay to mean homosexual a mastream movie. When gay is ed today to mean stupid or unsirable ( has only been ed this way sce the 1990s), rri wh a history of negative judgment and rigid ias about who or what is acceptable. By the mid-1920s, at the height of the Prohibn era, they were attractg as many as 7, 000 people of var rac and social class—gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr and straight alike.

The Begngs of a New Gay World“In the late 19th century, there was an creasgly visible prence of genr-non-nformg men who were engaged sexual relatnships wh other men major Amerin ci, ” says Chad Heap, a profsor of Amerin Studi at Gee Washgton Universy and the thor of Slummg: Sexual and Racial Enunters Amerin Nightlife, 1885-1940. By the 1920s, gay men had tablished a prence Harlem and the bohemian mec of Greenwich Village (as well as the seedier environs of Tim Square), and the cy’s first lbian enclav had appeared Harlem and the Village. Each gay enclave, wrote Gee Chncey his book Gay New York: Genr, Urban Culture, and the Makg of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940, had a different class and ethnic character, cultural style and public reputatn.

THE FOTTEN SECRET LANGUAGE OF GAY MEN

Gay Life the Jazz AgeAs the Uned Stat entered an era of unprecented enomic growth and prospery the years after World War I, cultural mor loosened and a new spir of sexual eedom reigned. Though New York Cy may have been the epicenter of the so-lled "Pansy Craze, " gay, lbian and transgenr performers graced the stag of nightspots ci all over the untry.

”At the same time, lbian and gay characters were beg featured a slew of popular “pulp” novels, songs and on Broadway stag (cludg the ntroversial 1926 play The Captive) and Hollywood—at least prr to 1934, when the motn picture dtry began enforcg censorship guil, known as the Hays Co. ” The sale of liquor was legal aga, but newly enforced laws and regulatns prohibed rtrants and bars om hirg gay employe or even servg gay patrons.

In the mid- to late ‘30s, Heap pots out, a wave of sensatnalized sex crim “provoked hysteria about sex crimals, who were often— the md of the public and the md of thori—equated wh gay men.

GAY SLANG OM THE 1970S

” By the post-World War II era, a larger cultural shift toward earlier marriage and suburban livg, the advent of TV and the anti-homosexualy csas champned by Joseph McCarthy would help ph the flowerg of gay culture reprented by the Pansy Craze firmly to the natn’s rear-view mirror.

The Jacksonville Jaguars’ associate strength ach publicly me out as gay Thursday, beg the first-ever publicly out male ach major Amerin men’s pro sports. Whether the highly lolised s and mannerisms that veloped as a way of circumventg the polil and social reprsn of sexualy the 19th and early 20th centuri ntaed the seeds of today’s LGBTQ+ culture is batable, but do leave wh a fascatg cultural miscellany of slang, drs s and even entire languag that were veloped orr that members of the gay muny uld teract wh one another safely. While an obv example is men wearg the cloth of women and vice versa, popular fashns 19th century homosexual circl clud wearg red neckti and red handkerchiefs, popular Italy and the US.