Boi (plural: bois) is an alternate spelling for boy.[1]The term has become a slang within the LGBT and butch and femme lesbian communities for a person's sexual or gender identities.[2][3] In some lesbian communities, there is an increasing acceptance of variant gender expression, as well as allowing people to identify as a boi.[4][5][6] The term has also seen usage in meme culture with the Dat Boi meme.[7]
A young trans man, or a trans man who is in the earlier stages of transitioning.[10]
A younger bisexual or gay person who may have effeminate characteristics. The term can also be used by anyone who wishes to distinguish from heterosexual or heteronormative identities.[10]
Boi may also refer to someone assigned female at birth, who generally does not identify as, or only partially identifies as feminine, female, a girl, or a woman. Some bois are trans or intersex people.[11]
Some bois identify as one or more of these, but they almost always identify as lesbians, dykes, or queer. Many trans bois are also genderqueer/nonbinary (in itself a trans/transgender group), or might identify as cis persons or trans men, and yet practice genderfuck in which they do not fit in either masculine or feminine binary gender presentation. Bois may prefer a range of pronouns, including "he", "she", or nonbinary and gender-neutral pronouns such as "they".[12]
One of the earliest usages of the term boi was with the rapper Big Boi.[13] In the early 2000s the term came into usage within skateboarding culture.[14] The term came into popular culture again with the song Sk8er Boi by Avril Lavigne.[15] The term came into meme culture with the Dat Boi meme. An animation of a frog on a unicycle usually accompanied by the caption "Here come dat boi. (O shit waddup!)"[16]
