"Friend of Dorothy" (lesbian)

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Did "friend of Dorothy" originate in Chicago or New York? A note below says NYC in the 1970s, but the Randy Shilts book is surely better than that. There are many bad hits for "friend of Dorothy" so I just searched that with "lesbian."
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(PROQUEST HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS)
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'There Was Not Much Worse You Could Call a Man'; CONDUCT UNBECOMING Lesbians and Gays in the U.S. Military, Vietnam to the Persian Gulf. By Randy Shilts. 784 pp. New York: St. Martin's Press. $27.95. Not Much Worse to Call a Man
By Kevin Buckley. New York Times (1857-Current. May 30, 1993. p. BR2 (2 pages)
One of the hundreds of remarkable stories in "Conduct Unbecoming" took place at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center outside Chicago in 1981. Agents of the Naval Investigative Service (N.I.S.) discovered that homosexuals sometimes referred to themselves as "friends of Dorothy." As Randy Shilts tells it in this landmark book: "This code term had originated in the 1940's and 1950's and referred to Judy Garland's character in the film 'The Wizard of Oz.' Ever since, gay men had identified themselves as 'freinds of Dorothy.' THe N.I.S., however, did not know the phrase's history and so believed that a woman named Dorothy was the hub of an enormous ring of military homosexuals in the Chicago area. The N.I.S. prepared to hunt Dorothy down and convince her to give them the names of homosexuals."
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(GOOGLE)
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Bag 5102/3/4A/B
... She Is A Friend Of Dorothy's, New York slang for lesbians, dates from 1977
and is a very polished song compared to many of John's home demos. ...
www.vigotone.com/bag/bag5102.htm - 16k - Cached - Similar pages
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Gay Essentials by David Bianco
... Who were some of the lesbians in Hollywood's golden age? What is the origin
of the phrase "a friend of Dorothy's"? ...
www.alyson.com/html/99_tocs/ 1099/1099essentials_toc.html - 22k - Cached - Similar pages
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(OCLC WORLDCAT)
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Title:The lost Lennon tapes.
volume thirteen
Author(s):Lennon, John, 1940-1980.  (Performer - prf)
Publication:New York :; Bag,
Year:1989, ?
Description:1 sound disc (36 min.) :; analog, 33 1/3 rpm, stereo. ;; 12 in.
Language:English
Music Type:Rock music
Standard No:Publisher: 5085; Bag
Contents:The great wok -- Yer blues -- I found out -- Oh Yoko! -- How? -- Pill -- Out of the blue -- #9 dream -- Tobias Casuals #3 -- John Henry -- She is a friend of Dorothy -- Real love -- Dear Yoko -- (Just like) Starting over -- The return of Mauric DuPont.

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OT: MISC.
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I wrote to Snopes (urban legends) about a YEAR ago. I got a form-letter reply today:
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OT: In other matters, I was just searching around the web, found the following photo, and think I'm gonna cry.
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http://vjarmy.com/archives/2005/02/a_very_gothamis.php