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From: bradr@ucbvax.ARPA (Brad Rubenstein)
Newsgroups: net.motss
Subject: Re: Gays, deafness, and problems of Linguistics
Message-ID: <10761@ucbvax.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 21-Oct-85 19:22:53 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.10761
Posted: Mon Oct 21 19:22:53 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 23-Oct-85 03:40:52 EDT
References: <105@emacs.UUCP>
Reply-To: bradr@ingres.UUCP (Brad Rubenstein)
Distribution: net
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 62

In article <105@emacs.UUCP> joe@emacs.UUCP (Joe Chapman) writes:
>
>Edmund White relates a conversation [...]
>    Why are there so many gay deaf people?  One theory: their
>    deafness prevents them from being socialized into concealing
>    their sexuality and so the natural incidence of homosexuality
>    that would occur in any population becomes more evident.

I think we are taught >through language< that sexuality (especially gay
sexuality) is bad and wrong; that it is something we shouldn't TALK
about.  Since, until recently, most deaf children went to boarding
schools, where, if sign language was used at all, it was used in dorm
rooms when others weren't watching, it doesn't surprise me that their
radically different linguistic experience is manifest in different
attitudes about sexuality.

It seems to me that not only are a large number of my deaf friends gay,
but many deaf people I know are in Computer Science.  What is the
connection?  Sometimes I think that I see so many gay deaf people
because I socialize with gay people, and the Deaf are visible as such
when they are socializing (you won't see much sign language in the
board room).  Not too surpising, eh?  Correlation doesn't imply
causation... Just my perspective as a hearing person (hopefully both
gay and deaf sensitive).

>[...]
>In the midst of hashing over this and a few derivative notions, some
>friends of mine turned the conversation back to the deafness theory; it
>suddenly occurred to me that I've never seen the word ``homosexual'' in
>American Sign Language [...]
>
>Joe Chapman	decvax!cca!emacs!joe	emacs!joe@cca-unix

Hearing folk have media (radio and TV) which act to homogenize the
language, so people from New York and California can understand each
other (mostly).  Since sign language does not have this, it is not so
standardized on the linguistic fringe (though American Sign Language
has a large lexicon that everybody agrees upon).  Topics which we don't
discuss freely have sign language vocabularies which vary widely from
region to region.  Computer Science and Homosexuality are two good
examples (I know five or six regional signs for "computer").

There are a bunch of signs for homosexuality, though some are
considered derogatory in certain places, and others are only
comprehensible in specific contexts (funny, english has the same
bug/feature).  My source book in such matters (people in netland seem
to have a passion for references) is "Signs of Sexual Behavior: An
Introduction to Some Sex-Related Vocabulary in American Sign Language"
by James Woodward.  It lists signs for "gay", "gay-male", "gay-female,
lesbian", and "queer, gay".  (I'd show you what they look like, but I
don't transmit well at 9600 baud).  The names given to the signs are
somewhat arbitrary.  The one I see (and use) most frequently here in
San Francisco is the last of these, which Woodward says tends to be
derogatory back East.  The sign is made by touching the thumb and index
finger (a "g" handshape) to the point of the chin.  "Lesbian" is made
similarly, but with an "L" hand shape.  I don't think I've ever been
misunderstood with these signs, nor do I think I've offended anyone who
wouldn't be offended by the word "gay".

Any comments?  Any Deaf folks out there have an opinion?

	Brad