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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