Friend of Dorothy
Mombi transformed Ozma into a boy and called him "Tip" (short for Tippetarius) in order to prevent the rightful ruler of Oz from ascending to the throne.
[13] The struggles faced by Dorothy, Toto, and friends, especially against the Wicked Witch of the West and her flying monkeys can metaphorically mirror the difficulties of coming out.
[14] Many see Garland's portrayal as a "queer journey, an escape from the puritanical, morally rigid, black-and-white small-town life to Technicolor city existence with fabulous friends".
[17] The song "act[ed] as a cultural catalyst, propelling the eventual embrace of the rainbow symbol by the world's LGBTQ communities".
[17] Time magazine, in its August 18, 1967, review of Garland's final engagement at New York's Palace Theatre, observed: "A disproportionate part of her nightly claque seems to be homosexual.
The boys in the tight trousers roll their eyes, tear at their hair and practically levitate from their seats, particularly when Judy sings ['Over the Rainbow'].
[15] She was the "archetype of the triumphant/tragic diva, paving the way for the stormy trajectories of superstars Elizabeth Taylor, Whitney Houston, Amy Winehouse, and Lindsay Lohan".
"[15] Her mental health problems were likely related to childhood trauma,[20][21] possibly untreated complex PTSD,[citation needed] a common shared experience with LGBTQ+ people.
"[16][18] Gay men, particularly older ones, were among her biggest fans: "One could mistake the front rows in audiences of her live concerts for a meeting of the Mattachine Society.
"[23] Richard Dyer argues that, after her artistic success in, but commercial failure of A Star Is Born (1954) "Garland's work and life tells a story of survival, and of someone trying to assert some form of control in a world that was set up to destroy her.
Garland took the act, the Allen Brothers, under her care becoming manager and booking agent, and had them open her concerts in Britain and the United States.
[a] Predating The Wizard of Oz origins of the phrase (although not connected to the L. Frank Baum novels) is New York City's celebrated humorist, critic and "defender of human and civil rights" Dorothy Parker, whose social circles in the 1920s and 1930s included gay men.
[38][39][40] The socialite would throw "famous parties at Garden of Allah's lavish celebrity villas", gay men would use the phrase for entry.
In conversation and in letter writing, phrases like "simply divine", "fabulous" and "nelly" began to be used by men, who later brought its use back to the United States.
By the 1960s and onward the social stigma of being gay was slowly lifting, including the Stonewall Riots in 1969 which launched the modern LGBTQ rights movement, and the phrase was no longer needed as much.
[48] As the cruise lines were hesitant to announce such things so blatantly in their daily publications, they would list the gathering as a "Meeting of the Friends of Dorothy".
