Queering Language: a Love that Dare not Speak its Name Comes Out of the Closet

Abstract

It has long been established that social conditions are reflected in the way identities and practices are encoded, resulting in a plethora of distinct and describable linguistic features (Gumperz, 1982; LePage and Tabouret-Keller, 1985; Muhlhausler and Harre, 1990; Eckert and McConnell-Ginet, 1992, 1999; Hall and Bucholtz, 1995). As a critical component of gay male interaction, linguistic practices are particularly revealing about the changing nature of homosexual subcultures and the relationship between language and sexuality. One way of introducing the differences between the social identities and activities through which male sexual relations and identities have been constituted is to review the changes in the vernacular terms used by gay men to refer to themselves and to their experiences, as well as to reconstruct how gay men have used different linguistic tactics to negotiate their position in society (cf. Leap, 1996; Harvey, 1997). This is precisely the aim of this chapter. The key research question I will be addressing is ‘how do a sample of British and American gay men negotiate and construct their sexual identities through their knowledge and use of gay slang?’ While I do not intend to provide a comprehensive account of the use of slang by gay men, it is hoped that the research presented in this chapter will give some preliminary insights into how British and American gay men use slang as a means of ordering their experiences and constructing their sexual identities.