Glossary
Androgynous dyke
A lesbian who is neither very masculine nor very feminine. The push for lesbians to look androgynous came during the 1970s as part of lesbian feminism, and was a backlash against the Butch/Femme social structure of the working class bar scene. See also flannel-shirt dyke and PC dyke.
Bisexual
Attracted to people of both sexes.
Bull Dyke
A lesbian who dresses and behaves in a masculine fashion.
Butch
A male or female who has strong male characteristics, mannerisms, or behavior. Strong or tough. Displaying traits considered masculine. Describes both physical build and personality, and applied to both genders.
Butch/Femme
- (Adj) Describing a relationship in which one person is femme and one is butch, and describing the dynamic between them.
- The social structure prevalent in working-class lesbian bars up through the early 1970s. This structure was strictly enforced by peer pressure. One had to be either a butch or a femme, and butches only dated femmes and femmes only dated butches. There was a lot of backlash against this structure in the 1970s when lesbian feminism emerged, and for a long time butches and femmes were absolutely politically incorrect, and were likely to be shunned by the feminist lesbian community. Butch/femme is starting to make a comeback. In its new form, it is not rigidly enforced: women are butch or femme because it is their own personality, and nothing else. Butch-on-butch and femme-on-femme are no longer discriminated against. There is, however, still very strong anti-butch/femme sentiment.
Camp
An ironic, often gay-identified approach to life, dress and speech gaining popularity following Susan Sontag's essay, "Notes Toward a Definition of Camp" in the Parisian Review in 1964.
Chicken
A young gale male, usually in his teens or early twenties.
Clone
First appearing in the 1970s, it refers to a gay man of a certain, somewhat standardized appearance. The classic look includes short-cropped hair, trim mustache, flannel shirt and Levi's brand 501 jeans -- on a relatively well sculptured body. Interchangeable with Castro clone after the main street of San Francisco's gay district.
Closet
The place where gay women and men figuratively hide their homosexuality. "In the closet" means not being open about being gay. This person may be referred to by others as "a closet case" or "closet queen".
Come out
To acknowledge your homosexuality; either to oneself or others. See closet.
Community
Describes the sense of finally belonging or identifying with a group of gays.
Drag
To dress in a way usually identified with the opposite sex. Differs from transvestitism in that drag usually refers to a specific act of cross-dressing, while transvestitism is applied to the general enjoyment of the act. "Dressing in drag," "I’m in a drag show," "I'll be going to the party in drag." See also drag queen.
Drag Queen
A person known to dress in drag on occasion, or who performs in public in drag.
Dyke
A lesbian. Derived from 19th cent. slang, dike, referring to male clothing. When first used it carried a derogatory connotation of masculine appearance or behavior. The connotation is still present, but many lesbians adopted the word as their term of preference. Also used as a put-down for a lesbian. "What a dyke."
Fag Hag
A heterosexual woman who socializes extensively with gay men. Sometimes, but not always pejorative. (RS)
Fag(got)
A male homosexual. Like dyke, the term was originally an epithet, but has been adopted by many gay men. In the early years of the Gay Liberation movement, some activists suggested it's derivative was from fagot, kindling used during the Inquisition when heretics, homosexuals and others, were burned at the stake. Others look to fag, the younger boys in British boy' schools used to do menial tasks for the upperclassmen. Also used as a put-down for a gay male. "Hey, you fag!" "He's such a faggot."
Family
A member of the homosexual community; implies that you gain support from the clusters of gay people around you. Also considered an extension of the nuclear family. Usage: "Oh, yes family, for sure!"
Femme
A lesbian or gay man who acts or dresses effeminately. A male who has female mannerisms, characteristics, or behavior. A female can also be considered femme if she has overly feminine characteristics or mannerisms. Opposite of butch.
FTM
Acronym for a Female-to-Male transexual person.
Gay
Homosexual. In the 17th century the term was expanded from its earlier meaning of cheerful to refer to men with a reputation for being playboys (gay Lothario first appeared in 1703). By the early 1800s, it was further expanded to refer to women with a reputation for sexual promiscuity. The term was first self-applied in the early 20th cent. By the 1970s, it was a standard, non-slang synonym for homosexual.
Gay-bashing
To verbally or physically attack a person because they are homosexual; other forms are verbal put-downs and epithets such as "fag", "dyke", "lez", "homo", "thats so gay" for extreme derision about something bad.
Gaydar
Gay radar, the sense by which queers identify other queers.
Gender
The expression or behavior of a person often defined as masculine, feminine, androgynous or any combination thereof. Gender that is legitimated by society is exclusive masculinity or femininity and is directly associated with biological sex.
Gender binary
Social rules that one must identify and present themselves exclusively as male or female. Also the belief that we live in a world with two sexes and two correlating genders.
Gender expression
How one expresses one’s self, in terms of dress and/or behaviors, that society will usually categorize as ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’ but may be any combination thereof.
Gender identity
One’s inner image of one’s self and how a person identifies their gender. Often identifies how a person “presents” to the world.
Gender queer
A person whose gender identity and/or gender expression falls outside of societal norms for their sex. Often used by people who deliberately blur the gender binary and the relationship between sex and gender.
Hermaphrodite
An outdated and insulting term used to describe intersexed people.
Heterosexism
The belief that heterosexuality is superior to homosexuality or bisexuality, or the tendency to assume that everyone is heterosexual.
Heterosexual
Attracted to the opposite sex. Considered the opposite of homosexual, it was used in the late 19th century to identify people attracted to both sexes; what we call today, bisexual.
Homophobia
Irrational fear of gay people and homosexuality. Coined by George Weinberg in Society and the Healthy Homosexual. Feelings that homosexuality is not normal, or that homosexuals are bad people, heterosexuals are "normal."
Homosexual
Attracted physically to the same sex. Coined in 1869 by Karl Maria Kertbeny. First appears in U.S. medical journals in the 1890s, and in general usage by the 1920s.
Intersexed
Persons who are born with genitals that have characteristics of both sexes. Most intersexed persons are subject to surgery in infancy assigning them a sex of male or female (a decision that is made by their parents and/or their doctor). One in 10,000 children are born intersexed.
Lambda
The Greek letter which transliterates as L. To the Greeks, it was a symbol of justice and equality, taking its shape from the scales of justice. It was adopted as a gay pride/gay rights symbol by the Mattachine Society in the 1970s, and is an international symbol of gay pride. Mattachine adopted it because of the symbolism of Justice and because they had been told that the army of one of the Greek city-states used to paint the lambda on their shields, and members of Greek armies, because of the male-only environment they lived in, frequently took male lovers.
Lesbian
A gay woman. The ancient Greek poet, Sappho lived on the island of Lesbos. As Sappho became known for her poems celebrating love between women, the term changed from "one who lives on Lesbos" to "a woman like Sappho and her followers." a homosexual woman. The word derives from the Greek island of Lesbos, where the poetess Sappho ran a school for young women, and often wrote erotic poetry about love between women. She is considered by many lesbians to have been a lesbian, although she was married and had children.
Lipstick lesbian
- A lesbian who behaves in a very feminine manner, not so much because she is a femme, but to distance herself from dykedom. These types tend to not even like the word "lesbian" and be very closeted. They tend to run ads that say things like, "Feminine-acting woman seeks feminine-acting woman for romance. No drugs, smokers, or butches." They are also considered irritating by dykes.
- Synonym for High Femme.
MTF
Acronym for a Male-to-Female transexual person.
Nelly
Similar to femme.
Open and Accepting
In the context of an organized group, such as a church congregation: practice within the group is available for all, there is a written non-discrimination policy or doctrine that specifies gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender members are fully embraced as honored members of the congregation and are not discriminated against because of their sexuality.
Out of the closet
A phrase describing a person who no longer attempts to hide being gay, a person who lives life as a known homosexual and has no shame about that fact.
Pink Triangle
The symbol gay men were made to wear in the Nazi concentration camps. It became a symbol of gay pride, and was first used to remind some homophobic Jews that homosexuals were in the concentration camps, too.
Queen
Effeminate gay man, from the 16th century, quean, a disparaging word for an unpleasant or promiscuous woman. A gay male who has dignity while being nelly. "Screaming Queen" is a queen with far less dignity and composure. "Raging Queen" is similar but with an added level of cynicism and ascorbic personality.
Queer
A noun used to describe a sexual minority without resorting to a definitive label. Instead of describing oneself as bisexual male, a more general term would be to use queer.
Questioning
Used in the context of sexual orientation, someone who is challenging inner beliefs and feelings toward homosexuality, dealing with their own homophobia.
Stonewall
The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in the late 1960s on Christopher Street, Greenwich Village, New York, which was raided by police on the night of June 28th, 1969. The queers in the bar (mostly butches, femmes, leathermen, leatherdykes, and drag queens) fought back, trapping police inside, breaking windows, and setting fire to the bar. Rioting continued for five days. These riots are generally considered to be the birth of the gay pride movement, although there were groups before that, such as the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis.
Sex
The biological anatomy of a person as determined at birth by a doctor, which can be altered by sex reassignment surgery. Sex is determined by this society in terms of male or female.
Transgender
A person who feels that they are a member of the opposite sex, that they have been trapped in their body all of their lives; this person may simply alter their image at times to appear as a member of the opposite sex or they may live their life as a member of the opposite sex. Some individuals use hormones to take on aspects of the opposite sex, i.e., men take female hormones to help develop breasts, women take male hormones to help grow facial and body hair. Some individuals undergo surgery to permanently alter their genitals to appear as members of the opposite sex.
Transgender(ed) or TG
- Anyone who crosses gender boundaries, including, but not limited to, transsexuals and transvestites.
- A person who lives mostly or completely in the gender not associated with their birth sex, but who does not identify as a transsexual.
Transphobia
Fear and intolerance of transgender people who persons who break societal gender norms.
Transition or Transitioning
Changing self-presentation so that one can better live and/or identify as their self-prescribed gender and/or sex—often involving taking hormones and/or having surgery.
Transsexuality
Identification with and a desire to be the opposite sex.
Transvestite
A person who dresses in the clothing of the opposite sex for pleasure or fun complete with makeup, hair, mannerisms; this does not mean that the transvestite is homosexual. See also drag
