I'm writing a story about a closeted director in 1934 Hollywood, and I'm trying to get a sense of 1) what terms gay men used to refer to themselves 2) what terms people in "polite society" used.
From what I've read, "gay" (or "gaycat") may have been in circulation but wasn't common yet, even among gay men. In oft-quoted "Bringing Up Baby," when a flummoxed Cary Grant is asked why he's wearing Katherine Hepburn's feathery bathrobe, he blurts "Because I went GAY all of a sudden!" Censors didn't know what that meant, or they wouldn't have allowed it.
(When asked what he's doing wearing the frilly garment, he says "I'm sitting in the middle of 42nd Street (NYC) waiting for a bus." One person I read noted that 42nd Street was a popular LGBT hangout, but that reference seems obscure, even from Howard Hawks.)
What I landed on was "queer," which had many uses depending on how you said it. Like "Jew," it can be descriptive, but say it a certain way and it's an epithet.
Can anyone offer advice or recommendations for resources?
RAJ
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