It's ancient. No exact date on first use, but first known use in print was 1975. Slash became the much more common term by late 80s into the 90s.
I got into fandom about that time, and only heard slash used, not The Premise, which I learned about much later from some of the Trek elders. They had to use it as code because at that time they could risk a lot by even discussing the possibility of gay men. It was still illegal and considered a mental illness, so straight women could lose custody of their children if it was discovered they were talking about "mentally ill queers".
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branchandroot
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Date: Apr. 25th, 2025 03:13 pm (UTC)I got into fandom about that time, and only heard slash used, not The Premise, which I learned about much later from some of the Trek elders. They had to use it as code because at that time they could risk a lot by even discussing the possibility of gay men. It was still illegal and considered a mental illness, so straight women could lose custody of their children if it was discovered they were talking about "mentally ill queers".
https://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Premise