My uncle (God rest his soul, wherever he's at now) was an "avowed" homosexual and was a member of a football team in the early 70s called the Flaming Faggots. It's a word that the community uses to describe itself.
Which means it's now officially removed from the vocabulary of the rest of us. Like "queer" and "gay." One more fine, centuries-old word corrupted and ruined by degenerates.