Cover Story: The queen’s English

A gay glossary for straight folks

Baby dyke — Inexperienced young lesbian

Banana hammock — Tight thong designed to show off man-junk. Synonym for “posing pouch.”

Bear — Beefy, hirsute gay man

Beard — Opposite-sex friend who poses as a gay person’s date

Boi — Boyish lesbian or immature young gay man

Bottom — The partner who prefers to, um, catch. Opposite of “top.”

Breeders — Derogatory gay term for heteros

Brokeback Mountain — The film that should’ve won the 2005 Oscar for Best Picture, dammit!

Butch — Adjective applied to a masculine gay person of either sex, although more common among lesbians. Opposite of “femme.”

Chickenhawk — Gay man who seeks much younger partners

Circuit party — Elaborately produced, all-night gay dance events typically held in large cities

Circuit queen — Gay man who lives for circuit parties

Civil union — Quasi-marriage legally recognized by some states, although not Georgia

Commitment ceremony — Ritualized observance of gay partnership. Has no legal standing but participants still register at Crate & Barrel.

Cruisy — Adjective applied to hardware store, coffeehouse, gym, etc., where gay men go to hook up

Diesel dyke — Aggressive, masculine lesbian

Domestic partner -- Gay person who receives workplace benefits through cohabitating partner

“Don’t ask, don’t tell” — Clinton-era policy that forces gay military personnel to conceal their sexuality

Drag king — Female entertainer with a cross-dressing act

Fag hag — Straight woman who enjoys company of gay men

Friend of Dorothy — Gay man; a reference to The Wizard of Oz

Gayborhood — Part of town where a high percentage of residents are gay; e.g. Jefferson Park in East Point.

Gaydar — Intuition for sensing another’s gayness

G.D.S. — Stands for “gay doppelganger syndrome,” a phenomenon in which gay or lesbian partners look frighteningly alike

Gender fuck — Deliberate effort to disrupt or obscure gender identity, usually to freak out straight people

Guppies — Gay urban professionals

Gym bunny — Gay man obsessed with working out

Heteroflexible — Adjective applied to straight person with gay social circle or queer sensibility

Lesbro — Straight man who enjoys company of lesbians

Lipstick lesbian — Femme lesbian who looks and acts like a straight girl

L.U.G. — Stands for “lesbian until graduation,” denoting a girl who experiments with other women during college

M.T.F. — Stands for “male-to-female”; a pre- or post-operative transsexual born as a man but who self-identifies as a woman. Reverse of “F.T.M.”

Miss Thang — Affectionate nickname for a drag queen

Nelly — Very effeminate gay man. Synonym for “swish.”

“On the DL” — Stands for “on the down-low”; applied to a gay man who hides his sexuality. Most commonly used by African-Americans. Synonym for “closeted.”

Outing — Drawing public attention to a closeted gay person’s sexuality

Perez Hilton — Bitchy gay blogger and TV personality popular for ragging amusingly on celebrities

Queer — Formerly derogatory term repurposed as an all-purpose description for nonstraight lifestyle or sensibility

Rice queen — Gay man who seeks Asian partners

Rough trade — Man, usually muscular and working-class, sought for furtive gay one-night stand, then discarded

Size queen — Gay man obsessed with large penises

Stonewall — Shorthand reference to the 1969 riots in Greenwich Village that gave birth to the gay rights movement

Tearoom — Public bathroom often cruised by gay men

Tom of Finland — Artist famed for raunchy erotic drawings of square-jawed, impossibly muscular men often dressed as sailors, bikers or policemen

Twink — Young, slender gay man with little or no body hair. Synonym for “chicken.”

U-Haul — What a lesbian brings on the second date

 

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Gay Pride events guide

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The lowdown on what’s going on around town

?By Thomas Wheatley, Kelli Goldman and Patrick Saunders ? Image ?

The queen’s English

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A gay glossary for straight folks

?By Scott Henry ? Image ?

Know your drag queens

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A collection of Pride’s favorite entertainers

?By Scott Henry ? Image ?

Crossdressing 101

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Just in time for Halloween!

?By Thomas Wheatley Image ?

Jonathan Escobar, gender-bender

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‘Why be called “gay” or “cross-dresser”? Why label? I’m only 16. I wanna have fun.’

?By Benjamin Fisher Image ?

Profile: Maria Rivers, founder of lesbian social-networking site

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‘We didn’t quit publishing Labrys because we went broke. We quit publishing because we evolved. LabrysATL.com is a social media now. It’s like a Facebook for lesbians.’

?By Kelli Goldman Image ?

Streetalk: Should Gay Pride be held on Halloween?

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Thanks to the drought, one of the city’s biggest — and best — festivals had to be pushed back from its usual summer date

?By Jeff Slate