About the term 'pansy'
I was researching the term "Good As You" (a backronym — or acronym deliberately formed from a phrase whose initial letters spell out a particular word — of "gay") and most of the citations are from the United Kingdom. However, there was a letter to the Birmingham (UK) Post, July 4, 1992, which stated that there were "Good As You" badges in San Francisco in 1988. Does anyone know about this backronym from the 1980s? Thanks for any help.
You have an article on "Pansy Division," ["The persistence of Pansy Division: Jon Ginoli on the queer band's longevity," June 28] and you may be interested to know that the term "pansy" was made famous (or infamous) by Jimmy Durante in the 1920s. It was used in the routine "So I Ups to Him," and the original term Durante used was "fairy." I also did some newspaper research on Fay Norman's "Gay Boy Revue" of 1934 and similar 1930s revues, and I can share the results with anyone. It appears that I am the first person to clip these articles on Newspapers.com, (https://www.newspapers.com/) so this is new information.
Barry Popik
Goshen, New York
SF only welcomes the rich
I participated in my first (or many) gay Pride marches in 1979. As this year's celebrations have just concluded in San Francisco, we queers and our allies must prepare for the coming assault on our civil rights, and even our physical safety, in light of the recent decisions handed down by the "Supreme Republican Court." I regret that San Francisco now only welcomes rich queers to your safe haven.
Les K. Wright, Ph.D.
Cortland, New York
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