Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site ucla-cs.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!oliveb!hplabs!sdcrdcf!ucla-cs!das From: das@ucla-cs.UUCP Newsgroups: net.motss Subject: Re: Gays, deafness, and problems of Linguistics Message-ID: <7271@ucla-cs.ARPA> Date: Sat, 26-Oct-85 05:27:10 EST Article-I.D.: ucla-cs.7271 Posted: Sat Oct 26 05:27:10 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 29-Oct-85 01:30:23 EST References: <105@emacs.UUCP> Reply-To: das@ucla-cs.UUCP (David Smallberg) Distribution: net Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department Lines: 23 Summary: In article <105@emacs.UUCP> joe@emacs.UUCP (Joe Chapman) writes: > ... > it suddenly occurred to me that I've never seen the word ``homosexual'' in > American Sign Language. At least in Southern California, the sign is G (for `gay') held with the middle joint of the index finger touching the chin. [For those who don't know, the letter G is a "We're number one!" hand turned so that the index finger is pointing left, with the back of the hand facing the "listener".] The reference is to a beard and also a woman, being in the lower portion of the face. [Many gender-related signs are made in the top portion of the face for males, and the bottom for females; "bastard" and "bitch", for example, are the same sign, but at different heights.] The woman from whom I took a sign language course tells of being at a national conference for interpreters, in which most of the conversing was done in ASL. She and some friends were explaining that they taught at Pierce Junior College in Los Angeles. The sign for Pierce is the thumb and forefinger grasping and wiggling the earlobe, a pun on "pierced (ears)". An interpreter from New York saw them and started chuckling -- she came over and explained that that sign is New York ASL for "gay". -- David Smallberg, das@locus.ucla.edu, {ihnp4,ucbvax}!ucla-cs!das