#had a bit of trouble finding info at first but that tiktok was super helpful actually

[queerslurheritageposts]

Hi! I was curious about the history of the word fairy as a queer slur, and I got the impression that that's the kind if thing you'd love to ramble about. If I'm wrong, that's fine, I can do my own research, but I wanted to ask you first

oh FUCK yes!! funnily enough I don't actually know much about the history of this particular slur other than that it seems to have been used most commonly towards particularly effeminate of flamboyant gay men. So YOU, lovely anon, have given us the opportunity to do something we love- research!

According to the wiktionary page for the word fairy in general, homophobic uses of the term were/are most common in the US and Northern England, and lists a few instances of its use as such in literature from the 1930s, 50s, and 80s. I also came across this fabulous tiktok on the terms history, which mentioned the term being used as early as 1895, in a section of the American Journal of Psychology discussing "inverts" (a common term for gay men at the time). The video also discusses how the term started falling out of fashion once the community started to reclaim the term, particularly thanks to the work of Harry Hay, who cofounded a counterculture movement called Radical Faeries in the late 70s