This makes me wonder if the reason "friend" become so aggressively platonic later is a conservative reaction against this kind of usage - an attempt to smother the queer reading of the word? "Friend is and always has been 100% platonic and there is absolutely NOTHING QUEER to see in ANY of these texts about intense friendship."

I'm also so curious why Sayers contributed to the magazine, because a queer magazine strikes me as outside her usual bailiwick. Did she have friends involved in the magazine?