Editing Shibboleth (section)

==Furtive shibboleths==
A ''furtive shibboleth'' is a type of a shibboleth that identifies individuals as being part of a group, not based on their ability to pronounce one or more words, but on their ability to recognize a seemingly innocuous phrase as a secret message. For example, members of [[Alcoholics Anonymous]] sometimes refer to themselves as "a friend of Bill W.", which is a reference to AA's founder, [[Bill W.|William Griffith Wilson]]. To the uninitiated, this would seem like a casual – if off-topic – remark, but other AA members would understand its meaning.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=2971|access-date=19 January 2019|title=What is Friends of Bill W. on a Cruise?|website=cruisecritic|last=<!---staff writer; no byline--->}}</ref>

Similarly, during [[World War II]], a homosexual [[United States Navy|US sailor]] might call himself a "[[friend of Dorothy]]", a tongue-in-cheek acknowledgment of a stereotypical [[Judy Garland as a gay icon|affinity for Judy Garland]] in ''[[The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)|The Wizard of Oz]]''. This code was so effective that the [[Naval Criminal Investigative Service|Naval Investigative Service]], upon learning that the phrase was a way for gay sailors to identify each other, undertook a search for this "Dorothy", whom they believed to be an actual woman with connections to homosexual servicemen in the Chicago area.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Casey |first1=Constance |title='Conduct Unbecoming': In Defense of Gays on the Front Line |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-03-29-vw-16447-story.html |access-date=2021-11-11 |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=1993-03-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190904131834/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-03-29-vw-16447-story.html |archive-date=2019-09-04}}</ref>{{cbignore}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Shilts|first=Randy|author-link=Randy Shilts |title=Conduct Unbecoming: Gays & Lesbians in the U.S. Military |publisher=[[St. Martin's Press]] |year=1993 |via=[[Google Books]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iOAmL6JPCE0C |location=New York |page=387 |isbn=0-312-34264-0 }}</ref> Many cruise lines still host "Friends of Dorothy" meetings for LGBT guests to gather.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Wallace |first1=Doug |title=What Is a Friend of Dorothy on a Cruise Ship? Exploring LGBTQ+ Meetups at Sea |url=https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles/what-is-a-friend-of-dorothy-on-a-cruise-ship-exploring-lgbtq-meetups-at-sea |website=Cruise Critic |publisher=Trip Advisor |access-date=23 January 2025}}</ref>

Likewise, homosexuals in Britain might use the [[cant (language)|cant language]] [[Polari]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Polari, the secret gay argot, is making a surprising comeback|work=The Spectator|author=Hensher, Philip|date=22 June 2019}}</ref>

[[Mark Twain]] used an explicit shibboleth to conceal a furtive shibboleth.  In ''[[The Innocents Abroad]]'' he told the Shibboleth story in seemingly "inept and uninteresting" detail. To the initiated, however, the wording revealed that Twain was a [[freemason]].<ref>{{cite journal|title= Mark Twain and Freemasonry|last=Jones|first=Alexander E.|journal=American Literature|volume=26|issue=3|year=1954|pages=368–9|publisher=Duke University Press|jstor=2921690|doi=10.2307/2921690}}</ref>

[[Fourteen Words|"Fourteen Words", "14", or "14/88"]] are furtive shibboleths used among [[White Supremacy|white supremacists]] in the Anglosphere.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/uselectionroadtrip/2008/oct/28/uselections-obama-racism|title=US elections: Fourteen Words that spell racism|last=Ridgeway|first=James|date=2008-10-28|work=The Guardian|access-date=2019-10-17|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref>