n. Umbrella term for people with a non-normative sexual orientation or identity.
2016
This moment of increased student activism has fostered a culture of competitive social consciousness. We trade in knowing the latest Twitter debacle, using jargon like "folx" and having read the most radical think-piece on "Formation."
2015
According to the T-FFED team, social media enables access to resources, support and information from which "trans and gender-diverse folx (especially folx of color) have been historically barred by gatekeeping on the part of the medical industrial complex."
2013
For many of us this was not only our first “BIG” ride but our first experience in an all women (“womyn, womyn-identified, two-spirited, trans & gender-variant folx”) event.
2005
2001 (earliest)
I resent it that some queer folx (primarily non-choice gay or lesbian folx) think I would just deny my queerness at the first sign of inconvenience.
One fairly new mechanism for producing fresh lingo is to reduce the variant spellings of a word to a single term by replacing the changeable letter or letters with x. For example, instead of writing women or womyn some people just write womxn. Instead of the gender-specific latina or latino, some prefer the gender-neutral latinx. Instead of referring separately to the software development kits (SDKs) named iOS SDK, Android SDK, and Windows SDK, the umbrella term xDK is sometimes used. Does this explain the x in folx. Not quite. The x isn't being used to consolidate multiple spellings, but multiple labels: gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, gender-variant, two-spirited, and others.
The use of folx in a broader sense — as a playful variation of folks — is quite old, dating to at least the mid-1930s.
The use of folx in a broader sense — as a playful variation of folks — is quite old, dating to at least the mid-1930s.