Polari, the secret gay language: 7 words we still use & 6 we should bring back

Polari, the secret gay language: 7 words we still use & 6 we should bring back

If you've ever talked about drag, camp, butches, and/or trade, you know at least some words from Polari, a secret gay language adopted by gay men in the United Kingdom between the 1920s and the 1960s.Polari was a gay slang language popularized in the U.K. while homosexuality was illegal, prompting gay men to find secret ways to communicate with one another without society understanding what they were talking about. According to Paul Baker of Lan…