I learned the words for “sodomy,” “legislation,” “support group,” “bar,” and, most important, the attempt to create an authentic Hebrew word for “gay”: aliz. Aliz, like our gay, literally means “happy” or “merry,” and the editors and writers of Maga’im were determined to try to spread its usage.
A valiant effort on their part, but one that has not taken root. At the time, homosexuality, and gay people generally, were discussed only in euphemisms. The proper Hebrew word for “gay” was—and still is—homosexual (although today, the word homo, once used as a curse, has achieved wider usage), a word that grated on my young PC ears. “Lesbian” was, and remains, lesbit. Other than that, there was k’ze (“like this”), as oblique a euphemism as I’ve ever heard, and m’ha-chevre (“from the gang”). These equivalents of “friend of Dorothy’s” made sense in a society that still was intolerant of gays and lesbians, especially a communal society where everyone seemed to know everyone else—and everyone else’s business. More recently, activists tried to encourage the use of the word g’ei, “proud,” which has the advantage of sounding like the by now international word gay.
—Lee Walzer, from Between Sodom and Eden: A Gay Journey Through Today’s Changing Israel
my cat is a hairless cat. i wanna see if tumblrs skin filter flags this as Illegal Skin
previously sufganiyotdyke, lezbiljkajasna | 18 | ♀ | lesbian | germany
probably the world's only jewish lesbian from ex-yu area
a lesbian who has been through A Lot. lesfem, future historian who blogs about old stuff, gay stuff, and old gay stuff. expect lots of history, judaism, lesbians, and jewish lesbians (historical or otherwise).please don't call me queer though. blacklist
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