Date: 30 Apr 1997 08:19:17 -0700
From: Channel Q News Desk <newsdesk@channelq.com>
Subject: "Queer" vs. "Gay"

A little history here.

According to a book by gay historian George Chauncey, the term "queer" 
was generally used by both gays and non-gays in America up until the 
1930s.  Non-gays used it in derogatory fashion, but gays accepted it as 
well, much as we may still use the term "faggots" among ourselves today.  
Only with the onset of the Depression did the term "queer" start to go 
out of fashion.

Repressive anti-gay laws were passed in New York and elsewhere, and 
police crackdowns mounted steadily against gay bars and gays in general 
(this was the same era when our marijuana laws were first enacted.  The 
30s weren't good times for any minorities or anyone straying from the 
straight and narrow).

In order to survive, gays and lesbians had to find another code word to 
use among themselves to avoid entrapment by police.  The word they chose 
was "gay," which probably derives from London slang.

In the late eighteenth century, female prostitutes were often referred to 
as "gay ladies."  The term seems to have been eventually picked up by 
male homosexual prostitutes as well in the 1890s.  Over the next three 
decades, the word "gay" crossed the ocean and was eventually transferred 
to any man who dressed up in women's clothes, whether they were 
prostitutes or not.

As police oppression mounted in New York and elsewhere in the 1930s and 
40s, homosexual men had to latch onto a code word that they knew the 
police were probably not cognizant of.  That word was "gay," which 
existed side by side with "queer," "fairy," and "pansy" for several years 
before becoming the word of choice among homosexuals.  It wasn't until 
the 1950s that the police and the media became aware of its subcultural 
meaning.

So the word "gay" was a self-invention of homosexuals and is a constant 
reminder of an earlier era when homosexuals had to use code words to hide 
their identity.  In the 60s, when the gay revolution picked up steam, the 
previously hidden term "gay" burst out into the open and thus became a 
symbol not of oppression, but pride.

Chauncey, George.  Gay New York:  Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making 
of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940.  New York:  HarperCollins.  Basic 
Books.  1994.

- --David Williams, Director
Kentucky Gay and Lesbian Library and Archives