"Gay" in 1933

[Joel S. Berson]

At 2/17/2013 07:34 AM, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
>The OED's first unambiguous citations for _gay_ 'homosexual' are
>dated 1941.  There are other citations going back as far as 1922,
>printed by the OED in square brackets,  that use the word _gay_ in a
>homosexual context but could be examples of other meanings of
>_gay_.  I do not claim that the citation below is an unambiguous
>example, but it certainly belongs in the square-bracket category.
>
>1933 _Baltimore Afro-American_ 21 Oct. 17 (ProQuest Historical
>Newspapers)  The products engendered by union of these decadents of
>changing sexes is generally an unenviable type of degeneracy
>characterized by homicidal or homosexual proclivities.  Sissies,
>fairies, pansies gay, The woods are full of them today.

This strikes me as better than bracketed -- what other meaning do
"Sissies, fairies, pansies gay" have in common?

Joel


>Fred Shapiro
>Editor
>YALE BOOK OF QUOTATIONS (Yale University Press)
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org