Can we address the elephant in the room? When did “queer/ballroom lingo” become something that everyone uses? You can’t sit at brunch without hearing someone who is not in the LGBTQ community say, “no shade, no tea,” often using it out of context. Straight men now preface their shady comments with “no shade,” completely missing the nuance of its original usage. In Nicki Minaj’s song “FTCU,” she uses the line “give me my 10s,” which in the ballroom scene refers to achieving a perfect score when walking a category.

Many of us, whether LGBTQ or straight, did not know where these terms originated. It was not until the documentary Paris is Burning became available on Netflix that we learned about the creation of these words. For those unfamiliar with ballroom culture, this documentary provided

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