Gay white male, gay Black male, bisexual male
Codes from gay personals giving orientation, race and sex, in the same pattern as SWF.
| Type | Modern shorthand and terms |
|---|---|
| Category | Identity code |
| Stands for | Gay white male, gay Black male, bisexual male |
| Earliest example we have found | the 1980s (GWM-BiM, in a Village Voice ad), Smithsonian, Advertising for Love (not claimed as the first use) |
Gay newspapers were where the letter codes flourished. A 1980s Village Voice ad quoted by the Smithsonian opens GWM-BiM, 44, rara avis, then compresses the rest: attr, strt lkg/actg, wd lk, frndshp, prhps more. Str8 (straight) and straight-acting also appear in these ads. In the late 1980s gay papers added health language, such as safe only, as the AIDS crisis changed how people wrote. In 1989 the bear community went further and invented the Bear Code, a whole string of letters and symbols for describing yourself.
Sources: Smithsonian, Advertising for Love; Philadelphia Gay News, personals through the decades; Bear World, the Bear Code.
Apps now ask for orientation directly, and many let people choose several options or none.
Know a term we are missing? Suggest one.
How this fits into 170 years of personal ad shorthand: From Object Matrimony to LTR: How Personal Ads Learned to Talk in Code.
All dictionary entries · The Personals Archive · How to write a personal ad
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