Back in the day I can see where those not in the know wouldn't know what this meant. What is interesting about this comment however, in this context, is that apparently the gay slang had slopped over into the mainstream, appropriated as a cut-down of course.

Hmmm. I wonder though if the put-downs came first, and then became part of gay slang as a way to take control of them? "We're here, we're queer"...etc.

Funny how words become international weapons, shorthanded by the waiters as Jack Fairy floats by: "Maricone, epicene, sexe douteux, Le Vice Anglais."

Speaking of Jack, it occurs to me that he is the very embodiment of Genet's Divine in "Our Lady of the Flowers." What is it Mandy says? "This wreakage of the streets." Yep.