From Regency England to 1920s Harlem to Miss Piggy, gay vernacular has given voice to homosexual inty and sire a hostile world. In some parts, still do.
Contents:
- DICK LESCH’S GUI TO SEVENTI GAY SLANG
- GAY SLANG OM THE 1970S
- THE FOTTEN SECRET LANGUAGE OF GAY MEN
- THIS SECRET LANGUAGE ALLOWED GAY MEN TO COMMUNITE WHEN HOMOSEXUALY WAS ILLEGAL
- 12 SLANG WORDS FOR GAY – USE THE TERMS TO ADDRS THEM!
DICK LESCH’S GUI TO SEVENTI GAY SLANG
While hazg the lennials durg a meetg today, several of them nfsed to not knowg the basic lexin of gay slanguage. This is for them and everyone else who needs a reher. * gay slang 70s *
Dick Lesch, an early gay-rights activist, who is now his eighti, arranged to donate his old workg fil to the archiv of the New York Public Library.
”In 1959, when Lesch was twenty-four, he left his fay home, Kentucky, for New York Cy, where he found work as a pater, a bartenr, a rator, a journalist, and as the unpaid print of the Mattache Society, one of the first gay-rights anizatns.
When the Stonewall rts broke out, three years later, he was the only openly gay reporter on the scene, verg the event for a new gay-focsed magaze lled The a recent Friday eveng, Lesch’s buzzer rang. In 1959, he left Kentucky for New York Cy, where he beme the print of the Mattache Society, one of the first gay-rights anizatns.
GAY SLANG OM THE 1970S
Polari is a secret language, or cryptolect, that served to help gay men England munite, and remas surprisgly fluential today. * gay slang 70s *
“This rd file is great, ” he said, flippg through a set of four-by-six x rds on which Lesch had neatly typed out gay slang terms om antiquy. ” Some of the fns were more nuanced: an “ntie, ” Lesch had wrten, was “an ageg or middle aged homosexual, offtim effemate character, ” or “a person of settled meanor who utns agast temperate acts. Photograph by Rebec FudalaNext up was Lesch’s llectn of magaz and newsletters, cludg After Dark (“Oh, bls you—they’re real llector’s ems, ” Bmann said); Christopher Street (“We have the archiv”); Female Mimics (“That’s fabulo”); the 1969 Time issue on homosexualy (“Cute”); and the monthly bullet for the Mattache Society.
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.
THE FOTTEN SECRET LANGUAGE OF GAY MEN
* gay slang 70s *
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. 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. While browsg recently through the available back issu of Oz magaze I noticed a gui to gay slang that I didn’t rell seeg before.
THIS SECRET LANGUAGE ALLOWED GAY MEN TO COMMUNITE WHEN HOMOSEXUALY WAS ILLEGAL
The unrground magaz and newspapers of the 60s and 70s were a lot more tolerant of the nascent gay rights movement than their “straight” (ie: non-eak) unterparts. Oz magaze published piec about gay rights, notably so issue 23 which ran an extract om The Homosexual Handbook (1969) by Angelo d’Arngelo among a uple of other featur; the UK’s first gay magaze, Jeremy, advertised regularly Oz and IT; later issu of Oz rried ads for another gay mag, Follow Up, and there’s a letter one issue om a gay eak plag about the state of the few gay pubs London where the clientele was apparently not eaky enough. The gay slang gui was extracted om The Queens’ Vernacular: A Gay Lexin by Bce Rodgers (1942–2009), published the US by Straight Arrow Books 1972.
12 SLANG WORDS FOR GAY – USE THE TERMS TO ADDRS THEM!
Rodgers’ book was reissued 1979 as Gay Talk: A (Sometim Outrageo) Dictnary of Gay Slang (Formerly entled The Queens’ Vernacular) but has been out-of-prt ever sce, unsurprisgly sce so much of is now pletely outmod. The phraseology may be ribald, obscene and offensive (misogynist, pecially) but the book has been scribed as “the first ser dictnary of gay slang and the five gay Amerin jargon rource”.