belle n.
1. (gay) a homosexual man, irrespective of beauty, dressed en travesti.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | (ref. to late 19C) Amer. Madam (1981) 236: The pansies in drag or out were called like Lady Richard, Lady Fresh, Chicago Belle, Toto and a few names you found printed on fences. | |
| Female-Impersonators 183: Later, with hired masculine escort, we depart from (Paresis) Hall bewigged, bepadded, bepowdered, bejewelled, and begowned to shine as belles on the bewaxed floor of X— Garden [Simes:DLSS]. | |
| Butterfly Man 201: ‘Some of these belles are doctors and lawyers; and one, the fat lady who need a couple of brassieres on her double chins, is the president of a bank’ [Simes:DLSS]. | |
 | Death in Fifth Position (1982) 154: The belle looked at him beneath sleepy lids which even in the dim light I could see had been heavily mascaraed. | |
| Rough Trade 105: ‘Did you hear about that belle he beat up—and knocked out one of her eyes?’ [Simes:DLSS]. | |
| Changing Homosexuality 80: ‘Well, here I am, coming out in New York, the butch belle of the ball, with a body like a Michelangelo brick shithouse and the mind and potential taste of a Cecil Beaton’ [Simes:DLSS]. |
2. (gay) a good-looking, young homosexual.
| Scarlet Pansy 333: The others present pointed her out as une belle, the same expression which is used so much in Baltimore and New Orleans. | |
| (con. 1944) Gallery (1948) 140: What a town to cruise this is. All the belles in the States would give their eyeteeth to be in Naples tonight. | |
| et al. Gay Girl’s Guide 3: belle: Used with various connotations, such as 1) any homosexual; 2) a young, flashy and possibly beautiful homosexual. Often used interchangeably with queen. | |
| Gay Detective (2003) 90: He plays too damned rough! Did you hear about that belle he beat up. | |
| Queens’ Vernacular 30: belle (obs, ’30s) 1. another homosexual ‘Just how many belles did you invite to my party, hon?’. | |
| Quiet Fire 174: There were the ‘belles,’ the piss-elegant queens. |