Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a clichéd, camp homosexual excl.

1965		Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 29: mary (n., adj.): An effeminate homosexual male, as used by other homosexuals to affectionately ‘nickname’ him. The term is very widely used, sometimes mockingly (indeed, perhaps, ‘self-mockingly’) It is a greeting: ‘mary! How are you, dear?’ [...] A name running this a close second is bessie.
1967		J. Rechy Numbers (1968) 70: Oh, Mary, she’ll tell her ‘sisters,’ I’ll simply die all my life thinking of that living dream on the beach — the sexy number who saved me from those muscle queens.
1970		T. Southern Blue Movie (1974) 213: ‘See if he’s got a hard-on’ [...] ‘Oh, Mary, has he ever!’.
1980		A. Maupin More Tales of the City (1984) 37: Oh, Mary! You’re not having another Chinoiserie period, are you, darling?
1995		Jaffe Cohen & Bob Smith ‘To Think That I Saw Him On Christopher Street’ 🎵 And Bruno just smiled as he took off his shirt / And he said ‘Mary, please!’ as he dished out the dirt.
2005		(con. 1950s) E. White My Lives 108: Mary, the joint is hopping tonight!
2019		P. Baker Fabulosa 294/2: Mary [...] 3. An exclamation.
2023		B. Dreyer Bluesky 1 Dec. 🌐 I man, for the love of God, Mary: Shut. Up.