Old-Timey Euphemisms For Gays and Lesbians

Time magazine used to write "the boys in tight trousers" to refer to the gay community which was largely underground at that time.

Good with colours.

Light in the loafers

He/She is just too busy to go out on dates

Hasn't met the right girl...

Friend of Dorthy

How's your sidekick (gay lovah)?

Bats for the other team (or doesn't bat on our side)

"He's creative."

"Confirmed Bachelor"

Backdoor Deirdre

Sister of Sappho

She eats the bearded clam

One of those boys

Where is all these homosexicals comin' from, know what I'm sayin'? When I was just a young girl, they'd just call you a punk! and the real elderly ones they'd call musical or friends of durrthy... and femmes and bulldaggers -- I ain't met one yet I didn't like, I just loves me a bulldagger!

He rides side saddle

Confirmed bachelor (mentioned above several times already)

He’s artsy

Heard he was “funny”

He’s got some sugar in the tank

For gay men:

Not the marrying kind.

He's one of those sort of men.

Shirt-lifter.

Auntie

Poofter

Twee

Poof

Fruit

Quaint chap (possibly)

Queer as a five pound note

[quote] Kat Hepburn

He is very musical

He is as camp as a row of pink tents

She drinks from the furry cup

He is batting for the other team

Courtesy my Dad, before I came out to him:

"He's....emotional."

He's a touch light in the heels

Bent as a nine speed walking stick

Bent as a nine speed walking stick

As queer as Dick's hatband

Gay as a tree full of parrots.

Gay as a tree full of parrots

Camp as Christmas

Bent as a butchers hook

“He was a change of life baby”

Queer as a three dollar bill.

Gay as a French horn.

He is....

sensitive

has a flair for the dramatic

a snappy dresser

is so loyal to his best friend

I never heard "good with colors" before. I'm good with colors. I guess I'm gay.

Devoted to his mother

He has SO many girl (pause) friends (as opposed to girlfriends) and they're all having too much fun to settle down.

The girls ALL just love him - and they all have so much fun together!

I think some girl just broke his heart {said with a shake of the head and a pitying tone that invites no more questions)

Leftfooter - I heard that on The Murdoch Mysteries, a Canadian tv show that takes place in 1907

He's as gay as a bowl of dicks.

Plum nelly

R17, you’re last one is a mistake. £2, £3 or £4 note (as they didn’t exist), but not a five pound note, which was a regular banknote. Having said that:

Lady golfer. She wears sensible shoes. She eats at the ‘Y’. Uphill gardener. He’s theatrical.

Career girl.

They're roommates / sharing expenses

Yes, R33, just trying to make ends meet

Er, if you know what I mean

A touch bit Lavender

R28

Heard left footer ages ago when watching Blackadder on television:

Baldrick: Why not make her think you prefer the company of men?

Edmund: But I do, Baldrick, I do!

Baldrick: No, no, My Lord. I mean, erm, the, er, intimate company of men...?

Edmund: You don't mean...like the Earl of Doncaster...?

Baldrick: I mean just like the Earl of Doncaster.

Edmund: That great radish? That steaming great left-footer? The Earl of Doncaster, Baldrick, has been riding side-saddle since he was seventeen.

Baldrick: Mm! And who would want to marry the Earl of Doncaster?

Edmund: Well, no-one wou-- (realises) Brilliant! Of course! No- one would marry the Earl of Doncaster! ... except, perhaps, the Duke of Beaufort.

R31

You're right of course, didn't realize until after clicked "post".

“he could suck a basketball through a garden hose”

He dances at the other end of the ballroom

pansy, pillow-biter

I love “uphill gardener” - so lucid!

"enchanted"

He's a ribbon clerk (19th century).

He has a hint of the mint.

He lives a flamboyant lifestyle.

"She only eats at the oyster bar."

He's just fashionable.

Invert

Catamite, cat

Ganymede

Bardash

Uranian

Swish

Flit

Ponce

Sapphist

Tribade

He plows Miss Lindsey's field

Mannish woman. Big lezzie.

He a ting ting.

Butt pirate

He's just a metrosexual

My husband is fascinated with all these terms and often talks about cocks.

Should I wonder?

Male Flight Attendants = Air Mattress or Sky Slut

He's a sugar booty.

Travel agent

Florist

Fashion designer

He only dates in Europe!

"Nancy Boy"

Lezzie-bin.

Just hasn't met the right girl/guy yet

Handsome woman

....she eats hair pie. .....fudgepacker

Jefferson County, Missouri, "Hoosier" in Walmart:

"Back off,

Jack off!

I'm wise

To the rise

In your Levis."

They're Pussy Bumpers.

Shhhhhhh.

Scissor Sister

Fudge packer.

Good to his mother

Fudge packer

He eats life (sperm).

Thespian. As in, “Is she a fellow...thespian?”

Gym teacher.

“Let’s just say he doesn’t know any women in the biblical sense.”

One of nature's bachelors

Sugar in the blood

This cup, R19 ?

Senator from South Carolina

Pansies (1930s) or gay bachelors (1920s). My grandmother (b. 1899) and her sister (b. 1905) used these terms frequently.

Doris Day called that effeminate co-worker 'creative' in Pillow Talk.

In "Prick Up Your Ears" a policeman refers to homosexuals as "shirt lifters"

R72 I always heard my grandparents call them 'confirmed' bachelors.

He-strumpets

Sings in the choir.

I was going to say Turd Wrestler but that's a plumber.

She prefers comfortable shoes.

He she's.

"Bunch of he she's at that bar."

“He was the best dance partner” - my grandmother, b. 1927

He/she or shim.

Sissy-Mary

He's nothing but a ribbon-clerk.

[quote] Queer as a three dollar bill.

I'm sure it could be, but that term is used for other things as well. I've heard it used to describe things and people that are strange and/or unusual, with no connection to sexuality.

He's America's fittest congressman!

He's the senior senator from South Carolina

cocksucker

Passionate Friends.

"He's my best friend and business partner"

She's a tennis player.

He's dedicated to the scout movement

He's very musical

Turd Burglar

Turd burglar

Shirtlifter

A member of the committee

[In France] Il en est.

[quote] Queer as a five pound note

No, a five pound note is not queer in the sense that it is a common variety. Queer as a two-pound note, perhaps.

Iron hoof / Iron

"Look at the state of that iron!"

As Kenny Williams used to quote his father, "We don't want any old irons in 'ere!"

Of the lavender persuasion

Of the lavender variety

R86, that Jewel Mayhew is behind this, isn't she?

They have a Boston marriage.

His gate swings both ways or double-gated

Girly man.

He's *whispers* Gayyyy

Fairy.

Daffodil.

"Mr. Vice President"

He's a wrestling coach who us married to a lady golfer/gym teacher

Sorry, should be "is married to"

"He holidays in Morocco"

Pansy.

He's well-dressed and artistic

He adores his mother.

I always liked "Diesel Dyke"

He is a fruit.

If he's in the South, he's a homo-sex-y'all.

Into track lighting. (Only used 1989 to mid-90s.)

He's one of those Fancy Pants.

This is more modern:

He's taking/teaching Improve Comedy.

For men: candy-ass or pansy-ass

pantywaist

He prefers to play the field.

He's a "fairy" nice guy.

Then there's the one my grandfather called me: sissyboy.

The only one I have for women is British in origin: one of those women with short hair and comfortable shoes.

I always liked the British 1960's slang term "Uphill Gardner" for gay men.

He's married to Liza Minnelli.

“Not the marrying type” “A man’s man” “He’s a private person”

Lesbyterian

Battie boy

Fuk boi

Punk

Shim

Bugger

Sooooo.... perhaps a google search for the definition of euphemism? These are mostly synonyms for gay, often slurs.

In Spanish - del otro lado. "The other side"

In some contexts - he has a vocation for celibacy.

[quote]Daffodil

I never heard this until I watched the movie about J. Edger Hoover. Judi Dench kept saying it.

Finocchio - Its literal translation from Italian into the English language is fennel but it is slang of the F word.

Frociarola - Italian for Fag-hag.

This site is a gold mine. Who knew Italians in Italy had so many ways to say gay. Most of the terms refer to bottom gays.

r128 "Ambidestro: ambidextrous, slang of bisexual."

That's cute

....

She’s a pie eater.

AC/DC

HE’s strange

In the eighth grade we had a "class prophecy" predicting how all of us would return to the 2th reunion of junior high. For me they said I would come back in a pink Cadillac convertible wearing a pink suit with a pink tie a pink carnation in my lapel, and wearing a diamond pinky ring. It was supposed to be homophobic overkill of course, but I had never seen "pinky" ring used to refer to gays before. I seriously considered showing up at the reunion so attired.

More recently I've seen toe-ring used in the same sense, and that little piece of leather surfers use to attack a board to their ankle - oh and a shark's tooth necklace. Again ,the associations are a little obscure.

R132 you must have been fabulous in 8th grade to have your classmates notice you like that. Pinky ring sounds very old school Mafia.