Daughters of Bilitis

--a lesbian group launched in 1955 by Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon. The initial emphasis of DoB was on socialization and community, but it slowly involved itself in law reform and education. DoB, named for a fictional contemporary of Sappho, published the newsletter The Ladder.

diesel dyke

--a very truck-driver-like butch

dildo

--a vaguely-phallus-shaped device used for sexual gratification. Actually, they come in lots of shapes, from very-realistic penis-shape, to vegetables like corn cobs and zucchini, to dolphins (the non-representational ones are used by lesbians who don't care for phallic shapes).

dom/domme/dominatrix

--someone who enjoys dominating another person in a Domination and Submission scene. A Dom may or may not be a Sadist. Dom is masculine, Domme and Dominatrix are feminine. Frequently used interchangeably with Top.

drag queen

--a gay man who dresses as a woman for pleasure and/or performance. Or, to quote To Wong Foo, With Love, Julie Newmar, "When a gay man has way too much fashion sense for one gender, he is a drag queen." It is usually polite to refer to a drag queen as "she" when she is in drag, and "he" when he is not.

drag

--either clothing of the opposite sex; clothing of the opposite gender; or a stylized, exaggerated version of either of the first two

dyke

--a lesbian, frequently one with attitude

dykon

--a lesbian icon, such as kd lang, Melissa Etheridge, or Ellen Degeneres

earthy-crunchy dyke

--a lesbian who is usually vegetarian and usually either New Age or Neopagan and has a tendency to change her name to something like "Sparrow" or "Lavender CrystalPower." Earth-mother type, wears Birkenstocks (unless she's too vegetarian to wear leather), varies from extremely flaky to very-nice-and-sensible-but-who-eats-too-much-tofu-with-bean-sprouts-for-most-people's-tastes.

en femme

--among transgendered people, dressed to the nines as one's preferred gender

en drabbe

--among transgendered people, dressed up as one's birth sex

eyebrows, singed or sparking

--a phrase used in some regions to indicate that someone is flaming. eg: "Jamie will singe your eyebrows."

fab or faboo

--short for Fabulous, a favorite word of many queens

faggot or fag

--a gay man, frequently one who is swishy, queeny, or effeminate

fag hag

--a person, frequently a straight woman, who enjoys hanging out with gay men

fairy

--a very swishy gay man

family

--a code word referring to gays or the gay community, as in, "Ellen Degeneres is Family."

Feinberg, Leslie

--trans and gay (not to mention communist, feminist & other...) activist. Leslie Feinberg was born female, but has lived as a male. Sie considers hirself a transgendered lesbian. Speaker and author of Stone Butch Blues, Transgender Warriors, and the forthcoming Drag King Dreams.

femme

--1) (n) a feminine woman, usually a lesbian 2) (n) a feminine gay man or drag queen 3) (adj) feminine, applied to both men and women

fetish or fetish object

--feeling of great sexual pleasure for an object or body part. One has a fetish for a fetish object.

Fire Island

--the narrow barrier island, off Long Island, NY, where The Pines, a resort favored by A-list gay men, where at least one circuit party takes place, and where lots of young handsome hunks go to party in general

fish

--what some gay men call females; frequently derrogative, sometimes joking

fish queen

--someone who prefers performing cunnilingus to other kinds of sexual activity (usually used for a male)

flagging

--to wear a hanky to show what kind of sexual activity one is interested in

flaggot

--abr.a flaming faggot

flame or flaming

--extravagantly effeminate and flamboyant, an adjective usually applied to gay men

flannel-shirt dyke

--usually a very casual lesbian who is neither butch nor femme, but is generally very capable; so called for the habit of wearing plaid flannel shirts whenever the weather permits. They tend to be outdoors-types. There are flannel-shirt butches and femmes, but not as many of them, since the stereotype of the flannel-shirt dyke emerged during the 1970s when "The Uniform" for lesbians was jeans and a flannel shirt.

flipping

--to cause a stone butch to "melt" or allow herself to be touched sexually, or to cause a top to bottom

fluff

--an older word for a femme, now fallen into disuse

FTM

--Female To Male, referring to a person who is Trans.

freedom rings

--a set of (usually 6) rings of aluminum or some other substance in the colors of the rainbow. Worn on one's person or adorning some personal object, they usually indicate that the owner is gay (or gay-friendly). The rings are based on the rainbow flag, a gay pride symbol. A subtlety sometimes ignored is that if the red ring is towards the wearer's right hand, they are gay. If it is towards their left hand, they are straight and gay-friendly.

friend of Dorothy or sister of Dorothy

--a code word for a gay person, originating from The Wizard of Oz

fruit

--a gay man

fruit bator fruit fly

--see fag hag

fruit loop(s)

--1) slang for freedom rings 2) an area frequently used by gay men for cruising

galimony

--the lesbian version of palimony

gay

--homosexual. The term originated as a code word for homosexuals when queer became too well-known. Previous to this usage, "gay" or "gey" had been used since at least Victorian times to refer to sex, usually of an illicit or publicly disapproved-of variety. "Geying it up" once meant visiting a brothel.

gaydar

--gay radar, the sense by which queers identify other queers

gender

--the social, mental, and emotional state associated with sex (sex being purely physical) and sex role stereotypes. Gender is masculine, feminine, neuter, or some combination thereof. It is not, as it is frequently used, synonymous with sex.

gender bending

--see gender fuck

gender fuck

--deliberately disrupting the bipolar gender system.

girl

--1) a femme submissive or bottom, frequently one who roleplays as young 2) a gay man

girlfriend

--1) any friend, either a woman or a gay man 2) a lesbian's lover

glamour butch

--a butch who likes to wear fancy suits, tuxedos, etc, frequently. Think kd lang.

gold-star lesbian

--a lesbian who never has had and never intends to have sex with a man. Sometimes they also get points for never sleeping with bisexuals. Entirely too many of them get terribly self-righteous about it, and look down on bisexuals and lesbians who have had sex with men.

graceful

--the translation of an Arabic euphemism for a female homosexual, apparently because many female dancers are/were lesbian (given a few days, I may even get the transliteration of the Arabic word)

granola dyke

--see earthy-crunchy dyke

green carnation

--frequently worn by Oscar Wilde as a boutonniere, this flower became a symbol of gay men in Victorian England

hanky code

--the code used primarily by gay men, but also by some lesbians, when cruising to signal to potential partners exactly what they are seeking. Each color of bandanna or hanky signifies a different sexual act, and is usually worn in the back pocket. If the hanky is worn on the left, it means that the wearer is a top or wishes to give a particular thing; on the right, that the wearer is a bottom or wishes to receive a particular thing. eg: In lesbian hanky code, light pink signifies a dildo or strap-on. If a light pink hanky is worn on the left, then the wearer is packing or likes to wear a dildo. If the hanky is worn on the right, then the wearer likes to get fucked with a dildo.

heterosexism

--the belief that heterosexuality is superior to homosexuality or bisexuality, or the tendency to assume that everyone is heterosexual

high femme

--a very, very feminine person

hir

--the transgender pronoun equivalent to him or her and his or hers. Transgendered individuals (such as Leslie Feinberg) that neither conventional pronoun quite seem to fit are frequently referred to by the transgender pronoun.

homocentric

--the belief that two of a kind beats a straight

homophobia

--an extreme irrational hatred or fear of homosexuals

keys

--worn dangling from a belt loop, keys signify (in an appropriate context) that the person is into BDSM. As with the hanky code, someone with "keys left" is a top, and "keys right" is a bottom.

kiki

--in the days when butch/femme ruled in the bars, this was a derogatory term for someone who was neither butch nor femme

kinky or kink

--describing sex which most people find unusual or abnormal

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 sybolism of Justice and because they had been told that the arny 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.

lavender

--a color associated with gay men since Ancient Greece, where the Greek word for lavender also meant a gay man

leatheror leather community

--referring to the community of fetishists and people who engage in BDSM, so called because leather is a very common fetish, and a lot of BDSM-folk wear and like it. Latex is another common fetish.

leatherdyke

--a lesbian who is a member of the Leather/BDSM community

leatherman

--a (usually gay) man who is a member of the Leather/BDSM community

lesbian

--a homosexual woman. The word derives from the Greek island of Lesbos, where the poetess Sappho ran a school for young women, and wrote often 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

--1)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. 2)synonym for High Femme

love that dare not speak its name, the

--one of the more poetic phrases used to describe homosexuality, courtesy of Lord Alfred Douglas, the fellow who got Oscar Wilde in so much trouble

low femme

--a femme lesbian who is, pershaps, not quite so stereotypically feminine as a high femme, usually preferring jeans and a blouse or t-shirt to skirts for everyday. Also known as a blue jeans femme.

LP

--Lesbian Potential, used when playing spot-the-queers in public places, as in "she's got high LP"

 

maricon

--Spanish word meaning sissy or faggot, usually used as a derrogative term. It appears to derive from a word meaning "changeling," and may be related to the word for "butterfly." Maricona, the feminine form, is sometimes used to mean dyke.

 

masochist

--someone who derives sexual pleasure from pain

 

Miss Thang or Miss Thing

--a drag queen. This has its origins in American Black culture, where "Miss Fine Thang" meant a woman who thought a lot of herself and had a big attitude, thereby making it perfect for many drag queens.

monosexism

--1)the belief that monosexuality (heterosexuality or homosexuality) is superior to bisexuality or omnisexuality 2)the belief that bisexuality or omnisexuality do not exist

monosexual

--an exclusively heterosexual or exclusively homosexual person

MTF

--Male to Female, usually referring to a transsexual, but also sometimes to a transgendered person or a crossdresser

MTM

--Male to Male. Some female to male transsexuals dislike the term FTM, because they feel that they were never female, and were always male, and that all this surgery is merely cosmetic, to make it clear to everyone else that they are male.

nelly

--see swish

neocon

--neoconservative; a label given by members of Sex Panic! to any gay person who thinks that maybe some gay men ought not sleep around so much or go barebacking

out

--1) publicly known as queer, sometimes modified with "very" 2) known as queer to close friends and/or blood family 3) acknowledge to oneself that one is queer

outed

--having it announced publicly that one is queer by someone other than oneself, usually when one would rather stay in the closet. Outing has come into use as a political weapon, and is strongly advocated and used by Michaelangelo Signorile most prominently. Mr. Signorile makes it his business to know the orientations of important people, especially in politics, and if they don't vote the way he thinks they should, he announces their queerness to the world.

omnisexual

--someone who is sexually attracted to people of all sexes

packing

--among lesbians, to wear a strap-on dildo, usually under one's clothes. Also, to put something (such as a pair of rolled-up sweatsocks or a cut up Kotex) in the underwear or shorts to achieve the illusion that there is something else there.

pansexual

--1) (n) someone who is sexually attracted to people of all sexes 2) (adj) used to denote an event at which people of all sexes are welcome

PC dyke or Politically Correct dyke

--a lesbian who is very careful in her language not to offend those people who are currently the pet minorities. They are mostly andro dykes because butch and femme are still very politically incorrect. Some of them become very dogmatic and absolutist about who is and who is not one of the "worthy" minorities.

pink

--a color frequently associated with homosexuals

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.

pinky ring

--at one time, worn by both men and women to signify that one was queer. Usually worn on the left hand.

play

--(v) any BDSM activity

 

post-op

--post operative transsexual, one who has completed all of the surgeries he or she intends to have

pre-op

--pre-operative transsexual, one who has not yet had any surgeries but intends to do so

pride

--1)n the belief that Gay is Good! 2)adj used in titles of events to denote that they are queer celebrations

pride flag

--see rainbow flag

pride parade

--a parade celebrating the Queer Experience

process

--(v) to discuss with one's friends or therapist or support group any problems which might be bothering one with the aim of figuring out how to solve the problems. Most commonly used by lesbians.

 

purple star

--usually enamel, worn in the seventies as a symbol of lesbianism

quaggot

--abr. a queer faggot (Yes, I know it's redundant.)

queen

--1) a drag queen 2) a flamboyant, effeminate gay man

queeny

--flamboyant and effeminate

queer

--gay, lesbian, bisexual, omnisexual, pansexual, transgendered, or transsexual

Queer Nation

--an activist organization, very loosely organized. Founded by Michaelangelo Signorile, Queer Nation tends to attract young liberal radicals, and tends to chant things like "We're Here, We're Queer, Get Used To It!"

rainbow or rainbow flag

--a gay pride symbol, designed by Gilbert Baker in 1978, originally having eight stripes: hot pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet, which stood for sexuality, life, healing, the sun, nature or serenity, art, harmony, and spirit. The hot pink stripe was dropped when flag makers couldn't find suitable material, and the indigo stripe was dropped to make the flag more balanced, so that three stripes could hang on either side of lampposts at Pride Parades.

sadomasochism

--taking pleasure from the giving and receiving of pain; the SM in BDSM

sadist

--someone who takes sexual pleasure from giving pain

SAM

--Smart Assed Masochist, a masochist who is rude in order to receive punishment

San Francisco Accent

--being gay. When Bank of America was acquired by NationsBank, and representatives were sent from SF to NationsBank's headquarters in North Carolina, an amusing request was sent back. The home office asked that no more employees with "San Fracisco accents" be sent. One can only assume that this is a new codephrase for being gay.

Sapphic

--code word for a lesbian, deriving from Sappho

Sappho

--ancient Greek poetess and headmistress of a school for young women on the island of Lesbos. Sappho wrote poetry, much of which is now lost, about her female lovers, who were frequently students at her finishing school. She had a daughter, Kleïs, to whose father she may or may not have been married; there is some debate on this point.

Saturday night butch

--a term from the 1950s and 60s, when butch/femme was the norm in lesbian bars, this means that a person was not a real butch, but only dressed up as a butch on the weekends. Women who were always butch and couldn't hide it looked down on these people as posers. Today, Saturday night butches are no longer really around, because they're all andro dykes instead.

scene

--(1) a subculture, as in "the club scene" (2) in BDSM, the arranged and negotiated sex or play; the framework (e.g. a 'cop scene' is one in which one or more of the players takes the role of a cop) or period of time (e.g. "Master Bob praised his submissive before ending the scene.") in which BDSM activity takes place. Used more loosely, it means any non-vanilla sex act.

sex

--physical plumbing or XX or XY chromosomes. There are an estimated 5 sexes by one researcher's count: Male, Merm, Herm, Ferm, and Female. Merms, Herms, and Ferms are intersexuals. Herm is a hermaphrodite with one teste and one ovary and external sex organs that are somewhere in between male and female. A Merm has testes but ambiguously-shaped genitalia. A Ferm has ovaries but ambiguously shaped genitalia. Some people are born with chromosomes opposite to their genital sex. Jamie Lee Curtis, for example, has XY chromosomes, making her chromosomally male, while she has unambiguously female genitals. In any case, sex is purely physical.

s/he or sie

--the transgender pronoun equivalent to he or she. Transgendered individuals (such as Leslie Feinberg) that neither conventional pronoun quite seem to fit are frequently referred to by the transgender pronoun.

Signorile, Michaelangelo

--an activist, member of the queer left, author of several books, and founder of Queer Nation and ACT-UP

smurf

--gay guys under 25, usually blonde with lots of attitude

SoBe

--South Beach Miami, Florida, a popular place for gays, especially gay men

soft butch

--a butch lesbian who is, perhaps, not so stereotypically masculine as a stone butch

stone butch

--a very masculine woman, usually to the point that she is mistaken for a man frequently. The term comes from African American slang, in which "stone" means "very." It has come to have other meanings as well. A butch can be sexually stone, as in, not being able to permit herself to be touched on the genitals for sex; emotionally stone, meaning that she has locked away her emotions and has trouble acknowledging or expressing them; or physically stone, having trouble being touched at all. A stone butch is usually some combination of all of these. One stone butch summed up hir essence with the statement, "It is a cool crawling sensation that causes a roaring rushing of white sound in the ears."

stone femme

-- 1)a femme lesbian who never tries to flip or "melt" her stone butch lover, but prefers to pleasure her lover by taking a passive role in sex 2)a femme lesbian who does not like to be touched, much like a stone butch

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.

strap-on

--a dildo worn in a harness so that it is situated in the same location as a man's penis

submissive

--someone who likes to seem to give up control to a dom or domme

swish

--1) (adj) effeminate and flamboyant 2) (verb) to act or move effeminately or flamboyantly

swishy

--see swish

switch

--1) one who is both a top and a bottom in the leather sense, and switches back and forth 2) one who is butch sometimes and femme sometimes, and andro sometimes

Teena, Brandon

--a young pre-op FTM TS who was living as a male. His birth sex was discovered, and he was raped by two young men. They threatened to kill him if he reported the rape. He did report it, and they killed him and his girlfriend.

three dollar bill

--as in, "queer as a three dollar bill." Meaning that the person is family.

toaster oven

--referring to the coming out episode of the TV show Ellen, wherein Ellen Morgan's new friend who has just revealed herself to be a lesbian makes a crack about if she had converted one more person, she would have gotten a toaster. Ellen, deep in denial of her own sexuality, says that if that's gay humor, she doesn't get it. Later, Ellen goes to the airport to find her new friend and tell her "I got the toaster joke." At the end, lesbian rock star Melissa Etheridge puts in a brief appearance to sign Ellen up as gay and give Ellen's friend her toaster. Thus the shirt, "Ask me how you can win a toaster."

Tom of Finland

--a Finnish artist (whose last name I can never remember) who draws extremely sexy pictures of heavily-muscled men wearing very butch clothing, such as lumberjack, sailor, or biker outfits. There is now a Tom of Finland line of clothing as well.

top

--1) (n) in general, the partner in sex who is active, or giving 2) (n) in the Leather Community, a sadist, dom, domme, or dominatrix; the one who takes charge of the scene 3) (v) to take charge or be bossy

Trans

--a catch-all term for anyone crossing gender or sex boundaries (transgender, transsexual, transvestite, etc.). Capitalized when referring to the community in general by those who view it as an ethnic designation similar to African American or Jewish.

transfag

--a gay FTM

transgender(ed)or TG

--1) anyone who crosses gender boundaries, including, but not limited to, transsexuals and transvestites. 2) a person who lives mostly or completely in the gender not associated with their birth sex, but who does not identify as a transsexual.

transsexual or TS

--a person whose birth sex is viewed by hir as incorrect or incompatible with hir image of hirself, and who takes steps (including but not limited to physical and/or hormone therapy, and surgery) to make hir outer self match hir self-identification.

transvestite

--anyone who regularly dresses in clothing associated with the opposite gender or sex. Some people cross-dress for pleasure (it is a variety of fetish); others have other reasons. A Trans person is often considered a transvestite by mainstream culture, while s/he hirself may find hir clothing perfectly suitable for one with hir self-image.

tryke

--a contraction of transsexual dyke, meaning a male to female transsexual who is a lesbian.

tween

--one who is in between butch and femme, and can take on either role; a switch

twinkie or twink

--tasty and cream filled, but having absolutly no nutritional value; young, shallow and cute (much like a smurf - usually very bar/dance scene)

U-hauls

--used to refer to lesbians who fall in love at first sight and move in right away with a new lover. This phenomenon is so well-known within the lesbian community that it resulted in the joke "What does a lesbian take on her second date? A U-haul."

vagitarian

--a code word for lesbian (and if you can't figure it out, then I can't help you)

vanilla

--non-leather or non-kinky sex or the people who have that kind of sex

vegan

--the most extreme kind of vegetarian, one who will eat no meat or animal product, including dairy products or eggs. Most will not use animal products of any sort, such as leather. An increasing number of lesbians are vegetarian and vegan.