Abstract
ABSTRACT Same-sex digital narratives usually assert homosexual agency and engender gender ideology, a progressive agenda which challenges systems of gender oppression. The representations of such usual entrenched perceptions have been the focus of many existing studies. However, in this study, I counter this ‘usual’ as I argue that anti-homosexuality ‘campaigners’ online contest gender ideology and re-present it as a negative descriptor. I do this by engaging the discourses from the #ArewaAgainstLGBTQ which trended on Nigerian Twitter between July 2019 and August 2019. I rely on Computer Mediated Pragma-Discursive Analysis and corpus linguistic tools (AntConc 2019) and contend that Nigerian anti-homosexuals negotiate an anti-homonationalist ideology which is reinforced through linguistic markers. Through their linguistic expressions, they reconfigure and antagonise pro-homosexuality narratives. The keyword analysis indicated that homosexuality was negatively framed while there are instances of linguistic terrorism wherein homosexuality is denounced with threats of externalisation of violence. Religion was also identified as crucial to the oppositional ideology. In the discussions, I assert the need to properly interrogate and understand negative linguistic representations of homosexuality as they erode the successes of human rights advocacies. I also contextualise how users harness digital media as a site for inscribing and decrypting perceptions on homosexuality.
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