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LGBT slang, LGBT speak or gay slang is a set of slang lexicon used predominantly among LGBT people. It has been used in various languages, including English and Japanese since the early 1900s as a means by which members of the LGBT community can identify themselves and speak in code with brevity and speed to other LGBTs.
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Summary
Because of sodomy laws and threat of prosecution due to the criminalization of homosexuality, LGBT slang also serves as an argot, a secret language and a way for the LGBT community to communicate with each other publicly without revealing their sexual orientation to others.
Cultural research
Since the advent of queer studies in universities, LGBT slang and argot has become a subject of academic research among linguistic anthropology scholars.
Cultural impact
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.
English
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" (UK) and "tearoom" (US) were used to denote public toilets used for sex. By 1999, this terminology had fallen out of use to the point of being greatly unrecognisable by members of the LGBT community at large.
United Kingdom
During the first seven decades of the 20th century, a specific form of Polari was developed by gay men and lesbians in urban centres with established LGBT communities.
Although there are differences, modern gay slang has adopted many Polari words, as detailed in the table below:
North America
The 1964 legislative report Homosexuality and Citizenship in Florida contains an extensive appendix documenting and defining the homosexual slang of the time.
Scruff launched a Gay Slang Dictionary app in January 2014. It includes commonly used slang in the United States from the gay community. Some of these cross over with the British slang, and some are only American.
H. Max published a short book including gays language in the late 80s. It also includes commonly used slang terms in the United States from the gay community.
Other slang that is not included in either.
Japanese
Although many slang words used in modern Japan are "loanwords" from American English, many native Japanese slang words remain in Japan's LGBT community such as the term "okoge", which serves the same purpose of the English slang word, "fag hag" – a "woman whose friends are mostly homosexual men". Although the literal English translation of okoge is burnt rice that sticks to the bottom of a pot, it is a reference to the Japanese equivalent to "faggot", okama (御釜, お釜, or 御竈; pot).