kgdykes@watbun.UUCP (10/22/85)
> From: joe@emacs.UUCP (Joe Chapman) > ...suddenly occurred to me that I've never seen the word ``homosexual'' in > American Sign Language. When I talked with a deaf friend a few years > ago we invented a sign for ``gay''. I believe the Jerry Falwell > interpreter spells the word, though I rarely tune in and have never > caught a really homophobic eisegesis. Nothing, either, in the big > dictionary with every sign imaginable in it.... > > ... [ If anyone's curious, the sign Pat and I used for ``gay'' was an > effeminate flick of the wrist: hardly politically correct, but it lent > itself well to a common method of word-construction. Words like > ``king'', ``emperor'', and ``queen'' [regina] are signed with an > identical motion, but with the hand held in a position corresponding to > I have seen this as a "regional" dialect situation. (I dabble in ASL, I know (well, more like "Hi" in a coffee shop) a couple hearing-impaired people.) Locally the two most common forms of ASL "gay" is the limp-wrist as you mentioned above, or the finger-spelling "F" symbol tapped to the cheek. (F for Fag?) In my visits to Boston I met/saw what I considered a surprising number of gay/deaf persons (ASL sure is convenient in loud discos! :-) But in other areas (Oklahoma city, Los Angeles) I never particularly noticed gay/deaf people. (maybe I just didnt stumble on the right social venue) In Toronto (near where I live) you see them once in a while, but it just doesn't strike me as prevailent as in Boston. - Ken Dykes Software Development Group, U. of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. N2L 3G1 (+1 519) 885 1211 {ihnp4,decvax,allegra,utzoo}!watmath!watbun!kgdykes