Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) a male homosexual.

c.1918		in Immortalia 47: When he swore he was a fruiter the king / Took down his royal pants.
1928		C. Panzram Journal of Murder in Gaddis & Long (2002) 115: I have met every kind of a crook there is. [...] fruiters and poofters.
1948		in Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) II 656: Proclaimed himself a fruiter / And the king took down his pants.
1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 31: Red! Society Red! You still blowing smoke? No one yells ‘sissy’ faster’n an undercover fruiter.
1977		E. Bunker Animal Factory 124: The first word I got is that he’s a fruiter.
1981		E. Bunker Little Boy Blue (1995) 213: Let’s go fuck around Main Street [...] Check out the fruiters and the hustling broads.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 157: In the homosexual world, the term has been elaborated on in various ways, e.g., fruiter, fruit fly (also a heterosexual woman who is attracted to fruits), fruit merchant.
1999		E. Bunker Mr Blue 47: Everyone was segregated in the jail except fruiters and killers.
2010		W. Ings ‘Trolling the Beat to Working the Soob’ in Int’l Jrnl Lexicog. 23:1 60: Rhyming slang dates from circa 1840 [...] For example, tea leafing (thieving), rooter tooter (fruiter/homosexual).