The Russian Gay

[wolfie-18.livejournal.com]

I was wondering (etymologically?) whether or not the Russian slang for gay comes from голубой the color or голубь the pigeon. I happened to find голубь from a 1960 edition of an Akhmanova dictionary my French teacher gave me. Would it be possible? In other languages, gays are also referred to as birds. Just a thought.

Comments

[skeptikos.livejournal.com]

By the way, there is a singer in Russia, Борис Моисеев, somewhat popular, in some circles. He produced himself an image of a gay, although i'm not sure if he's a gay in fact. But on the stage he makes himself out to be a natural gay very believable - and his repertoire corresponds to this appearance. So, his keynote song is called "Голубая луна" ("Blue moon"), and it's well-known in Russia. There is no any allusions to a gay subjects in lyrics to this song, except just the words "голубая луна", but the style of perfomance is demonstratively homoerotic, as always. Борис Моисеев sing this song in duet with other singer by name Николай Трубач, even less popular, than Моисеев. Трубач hadn't given cause to regardering him as a gay up to that time, but many people considered this song as indubitable proof of Трубач's homosexual orientation. And now when not-gays talk about gays, these not-gays usually remember song "Голубая луна", as a typical hint at gays theme, and they call "Голубая луна" Моисеев himself, through informal speech. Actually, Борис Моисеев is a living picture of a typical gay, as some dull-witted not-gays pictures a tipycal gay to themselves; and "Голубая луна" is a name to this living picture.

About "Eiffel 65" - i believe guys from "Eiffel 65" mean something else than gay, when they sang "i'm blue", probably "gloomy". But truly, in my English-Russian dictionary, there is a "голубой, имеющий гомосексуальную ориентацию" as a meaning to "blue", one of many other meanings. So I think, "голубой" was the first, and "голубь" borrows a sense from "голубой" because of a consonance.