What Is Something That Every Gay Person Would Recognize That No Straight Person Would?

The smell of a cock fresh from a man's arse.

Yeah, we lesbians are naturals at that.

Poppers.

Our secret telephone code

That half the leading men in Hallmark movies are GAY GAY GAY!!

Bad décor

^ You may recall Lurid Digs.

This guy just by his head.

Cock rings. I accidentally left one on the counter when family visited unexpectedly one day, I told my mother it was a rubber sealing ring from a huge new rainfall showerhead I was going to install.

Andrew Christian underwea

I thought that it could be the sound of a Grindr notification. But, A LOT of straight (and they really are straight) men and women know that notification sound.

The use of self tanning lotions and cover stick.

Nice cut and paste from Twitter, OP!

Y’all are so stereotypical. Some gay guys know nothing about this stuff

The lesbian haircut.

How the fourth sequin left of the heel on the right foot ruby slipper is .05 mm bigger than any of the others!

R9----I am a spinster hag but I used to keep a couple kinds of cock rings around for use on my house boy. A guy friend came over to help me rig a wobbly wrought iron headboard on my bed and he had the idea to drill a hole in the wall and secure the headboard in the center somehow. He said, "Do you have a cock ring or anything?" Whoosh! I whipped out one of those faux leather velcro ones, he drilled a screw in one of those plastic sheaths through the middle of it, wrapped the cock ring around one of the curliques and Voilá! My headboard stayed secure with a cock ring for many years.

Tom of Finland

Shame.

That is both chilling and sad, R20. I like to think it is better for younger gays.

The address of every bath house in town.

Nothing.

Let's be honest, OP. There is no essentialized gay sensibility or consciousness. There are gay people in Peru and Mozambique and Bhutan: they do not experience being gay the same way culturally that people in the US do.

Gay married guys

Wig/Weaves/Hairpieces/Extensions

Robert Mapplethorpe and Follies

R11 - or anyone who knows ~ Are the Grindr notification sound and Scruff notification sound the exact same?

No, R27.

[quote]Robert Mapplethorpe and Follies

If you're not joking, pretend you are.

Her...

Um who is she?

^ Ohhhh! You're not gay! Hisssssss!

All the lyrics to " Send in the Clowns."

Nancy Culp. If you weren't a fan, you're not gay.

To cast a brief pall on the thread:

No straight person will ever recognize the dread that gay men and lesbians experienced in their younger, closeted days (usually during high school), when they are caught looking at their same sex object of affection/lust by their straight peers.

Okay, back to the fun stuff:

Our uncanny ability to recognize each other in mixed company: At a party for a straight couple, a man immediately knew I was a fellow traveller, when I knew immediately who he named his dog "Bernice" after!

^ That's probably one of the first replies on this thread that actually answers the question correctly.

Except who is Bernice?

Cheryl.

"Nancy Culp. If you weren't a fan, you're not gay."

It's " Kulp," you non-gay person.

Gay DLers can recognize anyone who has ever been in a cast of " Follies" anywhere in the world.

All the dialogue from Mommie Dearest

I agree with r35 although I would take the word "dread" out of it since the reaction could go in many directions. I would also add what it's like to look in the mirror and feel attracted to yourself... or is that just me?

Who Helen Lawson is

r37, in my gay mind, I naturally assume it's inspired by Bernice Clifton, Alice Ghostley's character on 'Designing Women'.

Polari. Suck on that, homo haters.

A gloryhole

R44, you are a fellow traveller! I then asked him why he hadn't named his dog "Esmeralda" instead.

That gay people don't actually like drag queens and see they are just a variation of minstrels for straight people's amusement.

R31

"Um, oh yea, you're the one with nothing going on in your bedroom !"

The revulsion when a straight guy talks about eating pussy.

Poppers bottle.

To gay men, RUSH is not a rock group or a street in Chicago or SF.

Me.

FLAVAH!

Exhibit A.

R21, no...it hasn't gotten better at all.

Oh, I know! The colored hanky code! A guy who was bi gave one to me and I didn't understand it at first when he told me to always wear it my back pocket. Then after a couple of months, he drunkenly told me that it's to let others know what I'm into. But clearly, I was into him and no one else. Funny thing is he never wore the ones I bought after I found out, so that let me know that he wasn't ready for a REAL relationship...

A shaved butthole. Close-up.

The meaning of "Friend of Dorothy."

Zbornak, R59?

R60, you know damn well that a "friend of Dorothy" had to do with "The Wizard of Oz". Stop that silliness.

Dialogue from “Steel Magnolias.”

Relax two-bit cunt @ R61. I still love you more than my luggage.

Meds

Visible evidence that someone takes medication for HIV/Aids, unless they are medical staff.

R62 (following "Steel Magnolias" dialogue):

[Ouiser's look at Clairee acknowledging the fact, but still keeping a stiff upper lip]

R63, but really though? Like what 19 year old do you know takes a pill every single day, even if he isn't getting anything on the regular except the odd blow job now and then?

The color puce.

It's definitely gay porn stars.

Guys like Jeff Stryker, Brandon from SC, Colby Keller, Johnny Rapid.

Gay guys watch gay porn, straight guys don't. Porn stars become these gay celebrities who are very recognizable only to gay guys.

Ah believe you mean aubergine, R67.

Colton's first bf.

I've never seen Steel Magnolias.

I was thinking the exact same thing R68, men in porn.

Full time, professional gays are able to differentiate between different brands of poppers while blindfolded, unlike beginner, amateur gays

A glory hole cut through the wall between two toilet stalls.

Uniforms and their fit on football players and baseball players.

I suspect OP’s question had much more relevance thirty or forty years ago than it does today. I understand that objectively speaking life in the US for gay people is much better than it was then. But I have to admit that there are aspects of life from that time I miss. When I was first coming out in the mid-70s, being gay did give me a sense of belonging to a community in many ways. And there would have been tons of responses to OP’s question because in some ways it felt like we lived in a different universe from straight folks. There were cultural differences.

The fear of being outed, especially for us elder gays and lezzies.

I think my comment at r77 is a subset of what r76 said.

[30] It's not Nancy Kulp. Any self -respecting gay knows its Frieda Claxton (Nan Martin) from the Golden Girls.

When two seemingly "straight" guys are walking off together, to go off somewhere to have some sexually discreet fun.

Every line from the movie All About Eve.

The negligee Liza wears on her wedding nights.

Don't you mean the negligee Liza's husbands wear on their wedding nights?

"Who Helen Lawson is"

And more importantly, who Helen Lawson was going to be.

Women who wear pinky rings.

Off topic a bit but if I were Susan Hayward I would have demanded a different wardrobe.

R4 Please elaborate a little more!

A true star !!!!

If someone says, "Get her."

I was the one who misspelled Nancy Kulp's name. And I'm dying, people, Dying.

Gaydar

any bar named "The Eagle"

"Hola señorita cosa!"

"house in virginia"

R84 One of the best wig scenes ever!

big dick face

Sparkle Neely, sparkle.

I loved that gown at R88 ! I was very into rainbows at the time,remember that fad ?

Chintz.

This is confusing because there aren't any 'gay people' under 40. They don't use that word.

[Quote] This is confusing because there aren't any 'gay people' under 40. They don't use that word.

Not true at all.

Do only gay men wear cock rings?

How brilliant Judy was.

Caneface

Judy was one of the most talented singers ever. She also had a lot of pain and struggle throughout her life. Despite that, she had a good heart, which is hard to encounter in Hollywood. At a time when gay people were oppressed beyond belief, they identified with her struggles and she theirs.

R73 I am bisexual and have never used poppers. I jerked off with a guy on webcam once who used them and I asked him what they were like and he said it is like how people sniff glue or huff spraypaint but it gives you a high/arousal rush that lasts maybe 10-15 minutes. An older bisexual friend told me how they are very bad for your heart or circulatory system, so I never used them. I stopped using drugs in my late 20s and basically do not even drink alcohol at all now. I know they do not put you at risk for HIV/AIDS as it was once thought they did, but an older gay friend is convinced that they are bad for your body/immune system and he saw men he knew who were into using them during sex or while at discos get very sick from HIV/AIDS and die due to complications from it. But I told him how these men were probably using other drugs besides poppers/Amyl, staying up too late/not sleeping, not eating right, etc. that can all take a toll on your body. I have no idea if these men were on meds, or if the old meds even worked for them?

I have had older gay men at bars tell me how I simply must use poppers but I do not like combining drugs with sex. I had sex while drunk/buzzed on alcohol or stoned on pot with men and women maybe 2-4 times and hated it.

The anti-aging properties of topical semen.

I happen to know a couple of str8 couples that love poppers so they aren't unique to the gay world, nor are cock rings

If have a straight friend who once brought up poppers while we were talking about the club scene, and she said that she and her husband used to use them, but stopped after the kids. So while r108 makes sense to me, in the back of my head I wonder, who first brought them into the relationship, or any straight relationship? I suspect it's always the guy, who first learned about them in a gay encounter.

Aren't they sold in sex shops? Most sex shops are hetereo.

That a good point, r110. A conscientious sex-shop clerk probably would recommend poppers when a customer when a guy mentions his plans to fuck his girl in the ass.

R35: Interesting. We're about to adopt a dog that was left to fend for himself after other residents of area abandoned him. We were thinking of names and Barnabas came up. Now let it be said, for nearly a half century we've had nothing but felines but this dog is cute. He's a mix of hound and pit bull.

That is not Nancy Kulp @R30.

It’s Frieda Claxton

The closet, and what it means to come out of it.

Being on the lookout for VPL.