“…it was not in the dictionary. I've always said, If I had the sense I was born with and looked it up in the legal code, I would have found it.”

— Harry Hay

And it was in the penal code, of course. It wouldn't be in any American dictionary until 1938. And in most American dictionaries not until the Second World War. We had no words for ourselves. That's the important point--we didn't have words...

On not having the word to define his sexual orientation in “Meet Pioneer of Gay Rights, Harry Hay” https://progressive.org/magazine/meet-pioneer-gay-rights-harry-hay/ in The Progressive (2016 Aug 9)

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American gay rights activist 1912–2002

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