I tried looking around myself but I see your problem with date stamps and common usage, I found some stuff on the term Gay first coming to stage/screen about 1933/38 so it's possible it was in more common usuage in the 40's.
"Gay" was first used to refer to a male homosexual in the 1933 play "Young & Evil." Cary Grant used it in the 1938 movie "Bringing up Baby" to refer to a transvestite. Gershn Legman & G.V. Henry mentioned the term in their book Sexual Variations (1941)."
One thing you might want to try is contacting the OED regarding editions around that time and if they have any ideas. You might spark someone's OCD and they'll go searching for you.
no subject
I tried looking around myself but I see your problem with date stamps and common usage, I found some stuff on the term Gay first coming to stage/screen about 1933/38 so it's possible it was in more common usuage in the 40's.
"Gay" was first used to refer to a male homosexual in the 1933 play "Young & Evil." Cary Grant used it in the 1938 movie "Bringing up Baby" to refer to a transvestite. Gershn Legman & G.V. Henry mentioned the term in their book Sexual Variations (1941)."
One thing you might want to try is contacting the OED regarding editions around that time and if they have any ideas. You might spark someone's OCD and they'll go searching for you.
Hope you feel better soon hun x