LGBTQ Slang

LGBTQ slang, LGBTQ speak, queer slang, or gay slang is a set of English slang lexicon used predominantly among LGBTQ+ people. It has been used in various languages since the early 20th century as a means by which members of the LGBTQ+ community identify themselves and speak in code with brevity and speed to others. The acronym LGBT was popularized in the 1990s and stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender. It may refer to anyone who is non-heterosexual or non- cisgender, instead of exclusively to people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. To recognize this inclusion, a popular variant, ', adds the letter ''Q'' for those who identify as queer or are questioning their sexual or gender identity.

LGBTQ slang has played an integral part in LGBTQ+ culture for decades. Slang language initially emerged as a way for queer people to communicate with one another while avoiding detection by mainstream society. Queer people have always existed, but historically, they have had to be discreet about their identities and lives, particularly when being LGBTQ+ was illegal and or socially condemned.

LGBTQ slang is used as a way to signal one's identity and build solidarity within the community. When queer people use these certain words and phrases, they demonstrate to others that they are part of the LGBTQ+ community and share a common experience. This connection can create a sense of belonging for those historically rejected and isolated by mainstream society.

LGBTQ slang is also used by the community as a means of reclaiming language and deconstructing oppressive norms. Queer slang often includes playful references to sexual acts, which can serve as an assertion of sexual agency and a rejection of shame.

History and context

Because of sodomy laws and threat of prosecution due to the criminalization of homosexuality, LGBTQ slang has served as an argot or cant, a secret language and a way for the LGBTQ community to communicate with each other publicly without revealing their sexual orientation to others. Since the advent of queer studies in universities, LGBTQ slang and argot has become a subject of academic research among linguistic anthropology scholars.

During the first seven decades of the 20th century, a specific form of Polari was developed by gay men and lesbians in urban centres of the United Kingdom within established LGBTQ communities. Polari was featured on the BBC radio programme Round the Horne in 1964, exposing the wider public to the secret language. Although there are differences, contemporary British gay slang has adopted many Polari words. The 1964 legislative report '' Homosexuality and Citizenship in Florida'' contains an extensive appendix documenting and defining the homosexual slang in the United States at that time. SCRUFF launched a gay-slang dictionary app in 2014, which includes commonly used slang in the United States from the gay community. Specialized dictionaries that record LGBTQ slang have been found to revolve heavily around sexual matters.

Slang is ephemeral; terms used in one generation may pass out of usage in another. For example, in the 1960s and 1970s, the terms "cottage" (chiefly British) and "tearoom" (chiefly American) were used to denote public toilets used for sex. By 1999, this terminology had fallen out of use to the point of being greatly unrecognizable by members of the LGBTQ community at large.

Many terms that originated as gay slang have become part of the popular lexicon. For example, the word ''drag'' was popularized by Hubert Selby Jr. in his book '' Last Exit to Brooklyn''. ''Drag'' has been traced back by the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) to the late 19th Century. Conversely, words such as " banjee", while well-established in a subset of gay society, have never made the transition to popular use. Conversations between gay men have been found to use more slang and fewer commonly known terms about sexual behavior than conversations between straight men.

In the Philippines, many LGBTQ people speak with Swardspeak, or "gay lingo", which is a more extensive use of slang as a form of dialect or way of speaking. Other argots are spoken in southern Africa ( Gayle language and IsiNgqumo) and Indonesia ( Bahasa Binan). More specifically, in a country like Thailand, LGBTQ slang was always present in their history due to their religious, behavioral, and social nature. However, before the term LGBTQ was introduced, the Thai community would use the terms Kathoey and Tom. The term Kathoey was used to describe transgender women who dress, act, or partake in surgery to become female, and the term Tom as well as "handsome girls" in Thai was used to describe women who liked women. Homosexuality and transgenderism has always existed throughout their history, as their behavioral nature did not align with heterosexual ideals.

General slang terms

* 100-footer – an obviously gay or lesbian person (as if visible from 100 feet away) ( US)
* or (man-loving-man) – an umbrella term for attractions and relationships between men, regardless of their sexual or romantic orientation, sometimes including non-binary androphiles
* baths – bathhouses frequented by gay men for sexual encounters (US)
* beach bitch – a gay man who frequents beaches and resorts for sexual encounters (US)
* beard – a person used as a date, romantic partner, or spouse to conceal one's sexual orientation
* beat – an area frequented by gay men, where sexual acts occur (Australia)
* bent – gay, as opposed to straight (UK)
* bender – someone who has homosexual intercourse (UK)
* binding – a technique in which individuals wear tight clothing, bandages, or compression garments, known as binders, to hide and flatten their breasts
* bottom – a receptive partner in intercourse; also used as a verb for the state of receiving sexual stimulation
** – someone who dominantly or energetically plays the receptive role in intercourse
* – portmanteau of "boy pussy"; a male anus, in the context of anal sex. Also used to refer to a trans man's vulva
* – in ball culture, a gay male who presents as a gay male; that is, neither as a trans individual nor a heteronormative male. This mostly refers to someone who looks the part of what most would identify as “gay”
* butchy femme – a gender expression between femme and futch
* camp, campy – exaggerated and amusing, in a way that is typically associated with gay men or femininity
* clone – a San Francisco or New York Greenwich Village denizen with exaggerated macho behavior and appearance (US)
* closeted – keeping one's sexuality or gender identity a secret from others
* cocksucker – a person who practices fellatio, usually a gay male
* come out (of the closet) – to admit or publicly acknowledge oneself as non-heterosexual/non-cisgender
* cottaging – having or seeking anonymous gay sex in a public toilet, or 'cottage' (UK)
* cruising – seeking a casual gay sex encounter (historically from ancient Rome)
* down-low – homosexual or bisexual activity, kept secret, by men who have sex with men (US)
* en femme, en homme – the act of wearing clothes stereotypically of the opposite sex
* femboy – a feminine or androgynous male
* femme – a feminine homosexual
* – a shorter alternative to folks
* – a gender expression between femme and butch, or a feminine butch
* Game of Flats – an 18th-century English term for sex between women The reference is to A. G. Busbequius, Travels into Turkey, English translation (London, 1744). The original book, published much earlier, was invariably cited whenever lesbianism was mentioned, e.g., William Walsh's A Dialogue Concerning Women (London, 1691) and in Martin Schurig

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