Queer slang has always been more than language. It’s a pulse check. A mood ring. A collective inside joke that somehow manages to be hilarious, horny, and heartfelt all at once. From ballroom to TikTok to the group chat, the words we use aren’t just how we talk; they’re how we find each other.
In 2025, that lexicon got even richer. Queer people continued remixing old standbys, coining new micro-labels, and turning cultural critique into meme formats. The result is a digital vocabulary that’s equal parts academic and absurd. A love letter to identity, community, and knowing exactly when to say “she ate.”
Here are ten queer terms that ruled the internet this year, from “mother” to “serving,” and everything in between.
Mother/Mothering
What started in ballroom culture as a term of reverence for house leaders has gone fully mainstream. To call someone “Mother” in 2025 is to name them the blueprint, the moment, the emotional support icon of your life. Whether it’s Beyoncé at the Cowboy Carter Tour or your local drag queen keeping a brunch crowd fed and hydrated, “She’s Mother” remains the highest queer compliment. “Mothering,” meanwhile, has evolved into a verb representing the art of nurturing while slaying.
Golden Retriever & Black Cat Lesbians
Sapphic TikTok’s favorite dyad refuses to fade. The “golden retriever” lesbian—warm, loyal, sunshine energy—pairs perfectly (and sometimes disastrously) with the “black cat” lesbian—aloof, cunning, and a little unbothered. The idea is meant to represent the psychological pairing of opposites attracting to balance each other out in relationships. By 2025, the archetype escaped WLW spaces and trickled into gay men, nonbinary folks, and straight allies, all of whom use it to describe relationship dynamics.
Baby Gay
Every queer person remembers being a baby gay. It was the tender, chaotic stage when everything felt like both a revelation and a disaster. The term has evolved from teasing shorthand into a genuine badge of affection, describing anyone new to queer life, love, or culture. Whether it’s someone nervously attending their first Pride, misusing “top” and “bottom” in the group chat, or discovering But I’m a Cheerleader for the first time, the baby gays keep the community soft. In 2025, calling someone a baby gay isn’t condescending, but rather an offer of mentorship with a wink. We’ve all been there, and we’re better for it.
The Tea
Every queer generation has its own word for gossip, but the tea reigns supreme. Born from Black drag culture and ballroom slang (as in “T” for truth), it’s evolved into a catch-all for information, insight, or chaos, sometimes all at once. In 2025, spilling the tea isn’t just about drama. It’s about clarity. Whether it’s celebrity mess, political hypocrisy, or your friend’s messy situationship, “the tea” reminds us that knowing what’s really going on is its own kind of power.
100 Footer
A “100 footer” is someone whose queerness radiates from, well, 100 feet away. The term—equal parts joke and compliment—has roared back in 2025 as a celebration of unmistakable gay energy. Whether it’s the crop top, the confident walk, or simply the vibe, a 100 footer doesn’t need to say a word for the community to clock them instantly. Once used as a tease, it’s now a badge of visibility in a world that still tries to closet people.
It's Giving...
@mrgrandeofficial 10 months deep into 2025… 🎶 two more months until this song is complete! Follow to see how it shapes up! #rap #recap #2025
Another ballroom-scene turn of phrase, “It’s giving…” has become queer culture’s ultimate one-size-fits-all review. It’s how we describe everything from a killer outfit (“It’s giving power top”) to political chaos (“It’s giving dystopia”). The phrase lets queers assess a vibe without ever naming it outright, whether it’s campy, shady, affectionate, or all three. By 2025, “It’s giving…” isn’t just slang; it’s an entire tonal language. Two words, infinite implications, and always a little fabulous.
Era
Everything is an era now. What began with Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” has been fully absorbed into queer lexicon, because who understands self-reinvention better than us? We’re not just changing; we’re entering our “healing era,” our “bottom era,” our “I-finally-blocked-my-ex era.” It’s part humor, part empowerment, and entirely self-aware. To be in an era is to own your evolution publicly, dramatize it for the feed, and maybe even exaggerate it for the girls in the group chat. It’s queer dramaturgy at its finest: your identity, your timeline, your main-character arc.
Fam/Family
“Hey fam” might sound casual online, but in 2025, family carries deeper resonance. As anti-LGBTQ+ policies intensify, queer people have re-embraced “fam” as shorthand for solidarity, chosen kinship, and the people who show up when institutions don’t. It’s warm, protective, and proudly inclusive, whether shouted across Pride parades or typed under a drag queen’s livestream. “Fam” has become both a greeting and a rallying cry, because when community is under attack, found family isn’t just a metaphor. It’s survival.
Serve/Ate/Cunty
The holy trinity of performance verbs. Born from Black and Latinx ballroom culture, these words dominate comment sections and captions alike. To serve is to deliver excellence; to eat is to obliterate the competition; to be cunty is to do it all with audacious confidence. They’ve gone global (thank you, RuPaul’s Drag Race!), but their roots remain queer. Every “she ate” typed this year is a love letter to the queens who taught us how to own the moment.
The Girls/The Dolls
@bbnotiktok PSA🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨
In queer language, the girls have never just meant girls. From drag queens to trans women to anyone who embodies the divine feminine in all her chaotic glory, “the dolls” are a term of endearment, solidarity, and power. By 2025, phrases like “protect the dolls” evolved from ballroom slang into a full-on cultural mantra that became part meme, part movement. Online, it’s shorthand for community love; offline, it’s a reminder that trans women and drag performers remain the beating heart of queer culture. When the dolls are dolling, the world spins a little brighter.
Queer slang in 2025 isn’t just what we say; it’s how we live. It moves through jokes and trends and moments that shouldn’t have mattered but somehow did. It’s the pulse in our laughter, the armor in our irony, and the proof that language will always belong to the ones who twist it best.
