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From: jeff@mit-eddie.UUCP (Jeff Mattson)
Newsgroups: net.motss
Subject: Re: Gays, deafness, and problems of Linguistics
Message-ID: <175@mit-eddie.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 22-Oct-85 19:03:53 EDT
Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.175
Posted: Tue Oct 22 19:03:53 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 24-Oct-85 06:30:47 EDT
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About ASL signs for "gay":
> 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.

According to an old ASL teacher of mine, over here (in Boston) the sign you
gave for "gay" IS derogatory, but the one for "lesbian" is acceptable.  The
less derogatory sign for "gay" is simply to finger-spell the word.
-- 
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