Do you want to improve your queer ASL vobulary? This gui will teach you how to sign the word “gay” and other queer-related words!
Contents:
HOW TO SAY “GAY” IN SIGN LANGUAGE
* gay signalling *
Maybe you've seen the recent vio that purports to show "what actually happens when gay guys see other gay guys and straight people aren't around." While I n't nfirm or ny the accuracy of the clip's subject matter (still wag on clearance om the Gay Agenda), I n say that s edy is rooted a rich history of signalg, flaggg, and other forms of non-verbal munitn between gay men.Tmp Pulls a CharlottvilleThe vio fds actors/edians Brian Jordan Alvarez, Stephen Guaro, and Mch Silpa nng to one another their apartment buildg's stairwell.Upon regnizg one another's gayns, and realizg they're a space utterly void of heterosexualy, the three men lnch to some light nway……'80s face-molg 101……talog at-hangg……and low-key Bernatte-ery……wh a llective "Bnch!" at the end.The unrlyg tensn of the scene stems om the ia that the men are only ee—or perhaps safe—to unleash their purt gay selv the pany of others like them. Halper wr How to be Gay.
GAY SNA ETIQUETTE
A feme "performance" n prove dangero for men, regardls of sexualy, jt as failg to sufficiently "perform" femy n prove dangero for women.(Actually, a woman's feme "performance" n also be ed agast her—see knee-jerk qutns about rape victims like "What was she wearg?"—so I gus the world's jt a hostile place for women, or anyone who vok femy, perd.)The need to navigate one's inty through different social suatns, mixed wh the sire for regnn, has led gay men (and women, obvly, but this article is foced on the male si of this phenomenon) to velop subtle, often wordls methods of munitn wh others the know.Some of the systems have been historilly ed to broadst sexual sir, like the hanky , which saw s peak age the 1970s and '80s.
Therefore, on the ver of his 1984 album, Bce Sprgsteen would be flaggg that he wants to be fist-fucked; Q.E.D.Gay men have historilly ed clothg to signal inti outsi of sexual ntexts, as well. In Gay New York, Gee Chncey c red neckti as one of the major "fairy" signifiers of the 1890s, and the 1930s there was "practilly a homosexual monopoly" on dark brown and gray sue sho the 1930s.Hairstyl and slang have also been ed to siar effect. Physil mannerisms, too.So, why do gay men ntue to create and cultivate the systems of mostly non-verbal munitn wh each other?I thk a lot of has to do wh the fact that gayns don't e wh hered physil tras or other visible intifiers on the body; we're forced to create our own.