"She."

A few weeks ago, I ran into this one (squat) (gay) (STEM) (Brazilian) who once tried the dangly earring look, and I said hello, and then when we talked briefly about how we were doing, I was like, "I miss [first name of the one (gay) (STEM) (post-doc) (Brazilian)]."

"Yeeeessss," he was like, and then, "Did you hear she's a professor now?".

(Gay) (male) (Brazilians) do that a lot with each other in (English), I have noticed, probably carrying over slang in (Portuguese).

As my one former (art school) colleague who wears (women's) clothes once noted to me, it's a lot like how some (gay) (native English speakers) say "girlfriend" to each other a lot.