trout in the milk

[Mullins, Bill]

A new one on me . . .

>From http://volokh.com/posts/1120666629.shtml#6772 (near the end of the
second paragraph)

"Judge Allen also comes close to qualifying as an entrant in Eugene's
other category, "likely homosexual or bisexual who was nominated for the
Supreme Court." Of course, she doesn't fit because she was never
nominated. But a fair number of people have inferred the gay part from
her lifestyle: she never married and had close, devoted relationships,
first, with another woman lawyer (her campaign manager in the twenties
&thirties), and then with a female "distant cousin" with whom Allen
lived from the thirties until Allen's death in 1966. The cousin was
Judge Allen's full-time "companion &hostess" and has been described as
functioning like "a typical suburban housewife." For me, that's not
quite a trout in the milk, but others have been willing to draw the
inference, including the author of a 1998 Case-Western Ph.D.
dissertation arguing that Allen's career exemplifies the importance of
"homosexual networks" in facilitating women's success. "

After searching for the phrase, it looks like the author is using it for
"circumstantial evidence."
Apparently the phrase is from a Henry David Thoreau quote:
"Some circumstantial evidence is very strong as when you find a trout in
the milk."

Also seen attributed to Sherlock Holmes:
"Circumstantial evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you
find a trout in the milk." (but I believe he was (mis)quoting Thoreau)

But then I ran across:

A 1977 episode of "Streets of San Francisco" had this phrase for a
title:
" "A Trout In The Milk" A poet-balladeer (Roscoe Lee Brown) confesses to
murdering his daughter's boyfriend, giving homosexual attachment as the
motive. (R)"

So, does the phrase have a particular slang meaning in a gay context?