Was "queer" a leading, popular -- even quasi-official -- euphemism for
homosexual in 1940?  For example, in that year, if a prosecutor told a
jury in a summation during a trial on rape and murder charges that
"this was the crime of a queer personality, gentlemen," would everyone
have understood that he was implying the accused was gay (implying
because he could present no direct evidence of it)?  Or did the word
have a more general popular meaning, encompassing other "mental
disorders" (as regarded in those days)?

Hello mccook-ga,

Some homosexual men began to use the word "queer" to describe
themselves in the early 1900s.  It seems that it did not become a
derogatory term, or more specifically one used to describe homosexual
men negatively, until after 1940.  It was only around 1940 that
homosexual men, especially younger men, began to replace the word
"queer" with the word "gay".  The evidence generally suggests that it
was after World War II, in the late 1940s and the early 1950s, that
gay men's dislike of the word "queer", and the derogatory use of that
term to describe gay men, became common.

Here are the web pages upon which I base this conclusion:

Google cache of "The Language of Our Community", by Mark Martell
Standing Committe for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Awareness
[American College Personnel Association]
http://216.239.41.100/search?q=cache:YZNKcKuJo6MJ:www.geocities.com/sclgbta/Newsletter/postconvention2001/Diversity-Homosexual.html

"Origins of the word "gay" (was Re: Crime on the Internet)", thread on
< soc.culture.jewish> and other groups (1996/01/06)
Google Groups
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=4cmhu2%24gkg%40saba.info.ucla.edu

"The word 'queer'", thread on <soc.motss> (Nov 24, 1993)
Google Groups
http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=11DA1DA161A0%40crob.flint.umich.edu

"Rabbi's Column September 1998", by Rabbi Jane Rachel Litman
Congregation Sha'ar Zahav
http://www.shaarzahav.org/archive/arc97-98/forward/sep98/rabbicol.htm

Google cache of "Wag the dogma" [scroll down to near bottom of page,
to "The QT CyberCrone"]
QT-QueerTelevision 
http://216.239.41.100/search?q=cache:Z1lFjn4mhTEJ:www.qtonline.com/episodes/week20/savage.asp

It does not seem that "queer" has carried the meaning of "mental
disorders" generally.  The definitions on the following page indicate
the other meanings of "queer":

"5 entries found for queer"
Dictionary.com
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=queer&r=67

I hope that this information is helpful.

- justaskscott-ga


Search terms used on Google and Google Groups:

queer
"word queer"
queer 1940s
"word queer" "world war ii"

[I tried some other searches as well, but the search terms I have
mentioned led me to the pages I have cited.]

Top-flight, as usual.  My interpretation of the material you found is
a little different than yours -- it looks to me like "queer" was a
fairly widely used euphemism going back to the early part of the last
century -- but that takes nothing away from the excellence of the
sources you dug up.  Well done.

Hi mccook,
In addition to justaskscott's answer, the earliest recorded use of the
word in this current meaning, according to the OED, was in 1922, from
a US Department of Labor report on Juvenile Delinquents:
"A young man, easily ascertainable to be unusually fine in other
characteristics, is probably ‘queer’ in sex tendency."
Several derogatory uses of the word were recorded prior to 1940 (in
addition to scholarly works recording its usage): "'He's not queer, or
something, is he?’ ‘Lord, no! Worse than that. He's a convert'"
(1936), "Men dressed as women?.. Do you mean they're queer?" (1939).

secret901-ga

This is why I need to get an OED.  Perhaps I'll earn enough in tips
from good customers like mccook-ga to afford to buy one.  :-)

Thanks, mccook!