BGSQDBureau of General Services—Queer Division
BGSQD
The Queens’ English is a landmark reference guide to the LGBTQIA+ community’s contributions to the English language—an intersectional, inclusive, playfully illustrated glossary featuring more than 800 terms and fabulous phrases created by and for queer culture.
Author Chloe O. Davis gives readers a crash course in modern gay slang, queer theory terms, and playful colloquialisms that define and celebrate LGBTQIA+ culture. This modern dictionary provides an in-depth look at queer language, from terms influenced by celebrated lesbian poet Sappho and from New York’s underground queer ball culture in the 1980s to today’s celebration of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
The glossary of terms is supported by full-color illustrations and photography throughout, as well as real-life usage examples for those who don’t quite know how to use “kiki,” “polysexual,” or “transmasculine” in a sentence. A series of educational lessons highlight key people and events that shaped queer language; readers will learn the linguistic importance of pronouns, gender identity, Stonewall, the Harlem Renaissance, and more.
For every queen in your life–the men, women, gender non-conforming femmes, butches, daddies, and zaddies—THE QUEENS’ ENGLISH is at once an education and a celebration of queer history, identity, and the limitless imagination of the LGBTQIA+ community.
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Chloe O. Davis is a performer and debut author who works in the entertainment industry in New York City. A graduate of Hampton University and Temple University, she has centered her creative platform on amplifying the narratives of Black culture and heightening the awareness of LGBTQIA+ community.
Davis’s work as a dancer, actor, and creative has allowed her to travel to all fifty states and internationally. She has performed at premier theaters across the country, such as New York City Center, the Apollo Theater, the Kennedy Center, the Muny, and the Berkeley Repertory Theatre and has appeared on PBS Great Performances with Porgy and Bess at the Metropolitan Opera, Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert on NBC, and Southern Landscape performed by the Philadelphia Dance Company (PHILADANCO!).
Davis’s debut book, The Queens’ English, The LGBTQIA+ Dictionary for Lingo and Colloquial Phrases (Clarkson Potter/Penguin Random House, 2021) celebrates the etymological diversity of over eight hundred terms to describe the collective gay and queer experience. She believes this dictionary is a starting point for the important conversations around inclusivity, sexuality, gender expression and identity. The Queens’ English will also reach an international audience and is schedule to be released in the UK, June 2021 (Square Peg/Vintage Publishers).