BEIJING — To the 90 million or so members of China’s Communist Party, President Xi Jinping has a message: Don’t call me president. Don’t call me party secretary.

Call me “comrade.”

There is just one problem. In recent decades, the once ubiquitous term for Communist cadres and leaders has been embraced and popularized by a different group of people: gay men and lesbians.

The term “tongzhi,” or “comrade,” was a nearly universal form of address in China well into the 1980s, but as Mao jackets gave way to Western-style suits and ties, it fell out of favor among Chinese officials.

Among gay men, however, “tongzhi” became a term of affection and solidarity and eventually a catchall label for sexual minorities. A gay and lesbian film festival held annually in Hong Kong has been called the Hong Kong Comrade Film Festival since 1989. And the Beijing center for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people calls itself the Beijing Tongzhi Zhongxin — or the Beijing Comrade Center.