LGBTQIA+ Pride Month

In recognition of Pride Month this June, we have curated a selection of resources to help you discover, celebrate, and honor the vast contributions of LGBTQIA+ linguists, orators, singers, authors, and poets, whose words and work continue to remind us of the power of words. Below you’ll find past programs Planet Word has hosted, links to a reading list, musical playlist, and poetry, and two articles we chose to share because they specifically focus on specific words and language relevant to the LGBTQIA+ community.

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” — Dr. Seuss

Words matter. Language matters. LGBTQIA+ voices and stories matter. Wherever you are in your journey and however you identify, we wish you an empowering Pride Month!

Featured Past Programs

Featured Past Program

The Queens’ English: The LGBTQIA+ Dictionary of Lingo and Colloquial Phrases

February 09, 2021 | 6:30 p.m.

From abigail to zucchinis and hundreds of words and phrases in between, LGBTQIA+ lingo carries with it a vast history. Words like in the life, bulldyke, and bulldagger were born from the 1920s Harlem Renaissance era. The lesbian bar…

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Featured Past Program

Language & Gender

May 31, 2022 | 6:30 p.m.

Amanda Montell, reporter and feminist linguist, deconstructs language — from insults and cursing, gossip, and catcalling, to grammar and pronunciation patterns — to reveal the ways it has been used…

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LGBTQIA+ Voices and Stories

At Planet Word, we feature the words and works of numerous LGBTQIA+ linguists, orators, singers, authors, and poets on our walls, in our galleries, and in our Present Perfect gift shop. Check out this list of books celebrating LGBTQIA+ voices and stories on our Bookshop.org storefront.

Read the list

Celebrate LGBTQIA+ Pride Month by singing and grooving along with a playlist of anthems that make you want to unapologetically shout out “I am what I am!”

Listen now

Explore themes of identity, gender, and sexuality with this collection of poems and essays by LGBTQIA+ poets curated by the Poetry Foundation.

Explore the collection
Neil Ward, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Words Matter

Reviled, reclaimed and respected: the history of the word ‘queer’

From the field of Queer Studies to the Fab Five of TV’s Queer Eye, the word “queer” is widely used to refer to the LGBTQIA+ community. However, not everyone feels positively about the word — and some regard it to be an unspeakable slur. In this article, La Trobe University Associate Professor and historian Timothy W. Jones explains the word’s complicated history and its perceptions from reviled to reclaimed and respected.

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Language Matters

A brief history of Polari: the curious after-life of the dead language for gay men

Lancaster University Professor of Linguistics and English Language Paul Baker is the predominant scholar of Polari, “a secret language, which has now largely fallen out of use, but was historically spoken by gay men and female impersonators.” In this article, he briefly explains the history of this fascinating language.

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