Gender & Sexuality dictionary
folx
[fohks]
黑料网 does folx mean?
A variation on the word folks, folx is meant to be a gender-neutral way to refer to members of or signal identity in the LGBTQ+ community.
Where does folx come from?
While folx showed up as聽a general colloquial spelling of folks in the 1990s, the LGBTQ+ folx began in a blog post on queerbychoice.com in 2001. In the post, the author, Clare, uses the phrase queer folx to refer to herself and members of the LGBTQ+ community.
罢丑别听x 颈苍听folks not only represents the sound of the word’s plural, but it also uses the symbolism of letter X to represent “variable” or “other,” signifying the diverse and nonbinary identities in the LGBTQ+ community. The term Latinx (vs. the masculine Latino or feminine Latina) works similarly.
In 2014, a Tumblr post by Trans Folx Fighting Eating Disorders stated that they use the term to be inclusive of people with different gender identities. However, while use of folx is meant to be welcoming of all members of the LGBTQ+ community, a 2016 study done by linguist Levi C.R. Hord of the University of Western Ontario found that only a very small percentage of the community are familiar with the term.
Examples of folx
Who uses folx?
Folx is most commonly found on social media platforms and blogs. Sometimes the term is used as a collective way to refer to people in the LGBTQ+ community or a particular subsection of it, e.g., lesbian folx.
It’s also used to be inclusive of people in all marginalized communities.
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of folx like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of folx that will help our users expand their word mastery.