Pride: Gay Glossary by Anomaly

An Instagram project from senior Anomaly creative Kate Carter, ‘Gay Glossary’, seeks to help educate audiences and communities about LGBTQIAA+ language during this Pride month.

Carter says: “As an advertising creative who is apart of the LGBTQIAA+ community I found myself frustrated I wasn't informed enough. There's so much terminology and it can mean different things for different people. More importantly, it often evolves, whereas something like the word ‘queer’ can start out as a derogatory term and be re-appropriated by the community to be an affirmative identify label."

Carter said it is overwhelming to fully understand but absolutely necessary that we are all respectful and informed about, because words, labels and identifying language because they are so incredibly powerful and personal to the person who uses them.

Carter, a copywriter, worked with Anna Fine, design director at Draga5 and Gus Cook, associate creative director of brand at R/GA NYC, to reach out to designers, illustrators and typographers. Carter found that many professional creatives were willing to contribute to the project pro bono, helping the ‘Gay Glossary’ to provide illustrated definitions of over 80 words.

Each image was designed specially for Instagram, utilizing the classic square space of the platform, but also borrowing the colours and aesthetic of Pride. ‘Gay Glossary’ will post a ‘#wordofthegay’ every day until Pride is finished. According to Carter however, the size of the LGBTQIAA+ lexicon means that the project may run much further.