Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US) anyone who imitates another person to a slavish extent; thus a tedious, unimportant person.

1977		C. McFadden Serial 105: He said Harvey was practically a clone.
1984		D. Jenkins Life Its Ownself (1985) 58: ‘Dede Aldwyn?’ ‘Clone.’.

2. (orig. US gay) a general description of a gay man who poses as one of a variety of super-masculine stereotypes, e.g. a truck-driver, military man, cowboy etc, a style epitomized by the members of the 1970s disco group Village People; also attrib. (see also Castro clone n.) [note Gaymart.com ‘Queer Slang in the Gay 90s’ (1999): ‘In the 70’s the look included a mustache, muscle shirt/flannel shirt and Levi’s. The late 80’s–90’s included short hair, long sideburns, white t-shirt, shorts/jeans and Doc boots with gray socks’].

1981		J. Hayes in Chesebro Gayspeak 389: The greatest portion of the gay lexicon refers to gay male sexuality and associated activities: [...] clone.
1983		Messer Rondo 130: ‘[T]here’s another clone party tomorrow giving prizes for the least original costume’ [Simes:DLSS].
1988		H. Max Gay (S)language 8: Clone—San Francisco/New York Greenwich Village gay type with exaggerated macho behavior and appearance.
1992		J. Gardiner Class Apart 12/2: The ‘construction worker’ in hard hat, torn jeans and muddy boots, the leather-clad biker, the ‘clone’ (an ersatz urban lumberjack in plaid shirt and jeans), the tattooed skinhead, all familiar gay styles of dress from the 1970s on [Simes:DLSS].
1997		D. Harris Rise & Fall of Gay Culture 60: [A] group so highly uniform, so consistent in appearance, that a clone visiting the Midwest from New York instantly recognizes another clone living in Dayton [Simes:DLSS].
1999		J.M. Saslow Pictures & Passions 255: [Tom of Finland figures] crystallized the ‘clone’ fashions that identified Euro-American gay urbanites into the 1980s [Simes:DLSS].
2005		E. White My Lives 180: His disapproval of the American butch style didn’t keep him from being attracted to individual clones.
2024		NYRB 9 May 🌐 Tom of Finland’s imagery [...] refused the clichés of homosexuals as sissy inverts and paved the way for the macho Castro clones of the 1970s.