When self-proclaimed ally senior Kayleigh Jones walked into the high school cafeteria sized gay club that is 'Strut' in Costa Mesa, she instantly felt at home. "No like my gay friends knewwww that I hated going to The D," she told The Kumquat, "the night that I had at the gay club was such a big slay."
And there it is. You hear it everyday. You see it in the latest Newport Beach Instagram photo comments. And you can't fucking escape it – slay.
However, Jones' "slay" of a night isn't the first instance of this annoying behavior. She uses the term at the end of every sentence, hoping someone, specifically a queer person, notices that she's in tune with the 'newest', 'trendy' lexicon. Her gay friend, senior Marcus Wade, who requested to remain anonymous, recounts her behavior: "It's actually kind of really draining how often she says it around me. It feels like she sees me as this punching bag of a toy so that she can flaunt the fact that she has a gay friend.I’m terrifed of the day she learns what, “bussy” means. But I like going to date parties so I'm keeping them around, I guess."
In her interview with The Kumquat, Kayleigh Jones told our twink Kumquat writer that she thinks she popularized the term at Chapman: "No it's so crazy like everyyyone is saying it now! But it's kind of fun! It's just for the girlies that get it! :)” (we have no idea how she said :) out loud). When asked if she understood that her abuse of the word feels like she's stealing from Black, queer ballroom culture she apologized and offered a solution, "I didn't know that, but I'm listening and learning. I can start saying 'Yass king' instead?"
