Languages around the world are changing rapidly to become more inclusive of LGBTQ+ identities.
But for people who use American Sign Language, finding a visual and conceptual way to represent an inner identity can be complicated, and in some cases, there’s still not a clear consensus on which sign is best.
“With signs related to identity, it’s personal, and it’s hard to find one sign that works for everyone,” said Julie A. Hochgesang, a Deaf linguist and professor at Gallaudet University in Northeast Washington.
The Washington Post asked several members of the Deaf queer community to demonstrate how ASL is evolving.
Finding the right sign for ‘queer’
Consider the word “queer.” In ASL, there are at least three ways to sign it. One popular sign for “queer” uses the sign for “rainbow,” in reference to the rainbow Pride flag.
But some people feel the sign isn’t inclusive enough, because the rainbow doesn’t include colors like pink, light blue or white, which are found on the transgender Pride flag. Others oppose the rainbow because they say it portrays an idealized experience of being queer.
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“Using the rainbow makes everything seem happy, but everything isn’t all perfect,” said Oliver Stabbe, 27, who is trans, hard of hearing and lives in Oakland, Calif. “Queer people are still being oppressed.”
A second sign for queer is adapted from Japanese Sign Language. It’s a fluid motion that begins with an L hand shape and ends in the letter Q to suggest that there’s an alphabet of identities between the two letters.
Cecilia Grugan, 29, a Deaf, trans and nonbinary person living in the D.C. area, prefers this sign, because it feels more inclusive. “It symbolizes that the acronym can continue. Wherever you fall on this spectrum, this sign will include you,” they said.
But many Deaf queer people prefer to use the ASL alphabet to spell Q-U-E-E-R because they feel the other signs don’t fully represent them. The double “e” in the word makes it simple to fingerspell.
The challenge of creating a new sign
While spoken and written languages can spread swiftly through a number of formats, ASL has typically spread through face-to-face interactions and can’t be easily shared by written word, so it can take longer for consensus to form around new signs.
For much of ASL’s history, those who have had the most power to disseminate signs have been straight, White, cisgender people, according to Deidra Pelletier, vice president of the Rainbow Alliance of the Deaf.
“In the past, much of the queer community was closeted, so they didn’t really have the chance to discuss or analyze signs in large groups with straight people,” she said.
The rise of video-based social media is allowing ASL to spread more rapidly and is empowering the Deaf queer community to exert more influence over American Sign Language.
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But finding an iconic or metaphorical way to represent some identities has proven to be difficult, and many signs are still fingerspelled. Long words require dexterity and aren’t always easy to decipher.
For instance, “bisexual” is an eight-letter word that can be tedious to fingerspell. As a result, Deaf people typically spell out the abbreviation “Bi,” instead. There have been attempts to come up with a more conceptual sign for “bisexual,” but none have caught on widely.
Finding a sign for nonbinary
Other identities — nonbinary, asexual or pansexual — are also challenging to spell in ASL But abbreviations don’t always work. For instance, “nonbinary” can’t be shortened to “N-B,” because that abbreviation is used in some communities to refer to non-Black people.
A few years ago, Deaf nonbinary people planned a virtual town hall to come up with a new sign for nonbinary, according to Bee Gehman, who founded Jooux, a Deaf sexual wellness center. But, the meeting never happened because of a lack of resources and support.
“It’s a challenge to come up with a new sign because we’re constantly trying to survive in this oppressive society as a Deaf, disabled and queer person,” said Gehman, who identifies as nonbinary and queer.
Some, like Jerrin George, a 33-year old Deaf nonbinary person living in D.C., don’t mind spelling out the full word, because they view it as an educational opportunity.
“Giving people access to the English word spelling allows them to Google it and learn more about it,” George said.
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A sign for ‘transgender’ has been slow to spread
For years, a commonly used sign to describe transgender people combined the sign for “sex” and the motion for “change.” The sign now is considered offensive and is akin to using the outdated English word “transsexual.”
A group of Deaf trans people at a 2003 conference in Florida agreed on a new sign that evokes the sign for “beautiful” and is placed on the chest, where the sign for “myself” is also placed. The sign can be interpreted in a variety of ways, but is ultimately about having a strong inner identity, said Alex Leffers, a Deaf trans man who took part in the decision to choose this sign.
“It doesn’t matter what you look like, or how you represent yourself, it’s about who you are on the inside,” he said. “That identity is protected; it can’t be taken from you.”
Though the decision to use this sign was made two decades ago, some Deaf trans people say many interpreters still don’t know the sign.
Leffers, a communications manager at Gallaudet University, said the hope is for signs related to queer identities to be included in more educational curriculums and interpreting programs.
Morgan Jericho, a 32-year-old transgender Deaf person, said that while he knew the English word for “trans,” he didn’t learn the ASL sign for his identity until he attended Gallaudet.
Finding an inclusive sign for drag
Other signs related to queer identity are only now starting to spread more widely.
For example, drag shows have traditionally been inaccessible for many Deaf people because they lacked captions or interpreters. But as more ASL interpreters have been provided at drag events, signs related to drag have spread.
And the rise of Deaf drag performers like Alvaro Garcia, 33 and Jimmy Linares, 32, of Denver, has raised awareness about drag in the Deaf community. The duo perform as Deafies in Drag on social media, and many of their videos feature them doing more visually based acts, like skits or telling stories in ASL.
One sign for “drag queen” suggests a bold wig worn by many performers, combined with the sign for “queen,” which uses a “Q” hand shape and outlines a sash.
Another variation on “queen” suggests the placement of a crown.
Leffers, the trans man who helped choose the new sign for “trans,” said he also helped come up with a sign for “drag king,” a performer who personifies male gender stereotypes. This sign, which is only starting to spread, emulates twirling a mustache, and can be combined with the sign for “king,” which uses a “K” hand shape to outline a sash.
Lillouie Barrios, owner of a Deaf drag organization in Portland, Ore., called Handsync, didn’t learn the sign for “drag king” until 2019. But for nonbinary drag performers, neither the sign for “drag queen” or “drag king” seem to fit, he said.
“It’s complicated. We haven’t confirmed an appropriate sign for the general act of drag itself,” he said. “We really need to find one good sign for just the word “drag.'”
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Why some identity signs can offend
In ASL, signs relating to women, such as “sister” or “mother,” are traditionally placed on the lower half of the face, whereas signs relating to men are typically placed on the upper half of the face.
That’s why some people don’t like the traditional sign for “gay,” which places a “G” hand shape at the chin. They believe this suggests a feminine sign.
Gehman, a certified sexuality educator, said that they fingerspell the word.
Ernest Willman, 30, of Arizona, said that in his Deaf gay community, there’s a lot of debate about which sign is best. Some feel that the non-spelled sign carries stigma, but others feel they are reclaiming the sign, he said.
“Often in the gay Deaf community, it would be acceptable to use the old sign for gay, but I encourage other people to use the spelled-out word,” Willman said.
Sean Norman, a 37-year-old Deaf gay man living in D.C. prefers to use the traditional sign.
“I feel like it’s a source of pride now,” he said. “A sign isn’t inherently negative.”
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A second sign for ‘lesbian’
A similar debate is also playing out in Deaf lesbian communities. An older sign for “lesbian” involved putting an “L” on the chin.
Some people said the sign resembled the sign for “vagina,” said MJ Bienvenu, 70, a Deaf lesbian woman living in Austin. She and many others have started using a newer sign for “lesbian” that moves the position of the hand slightly so that a person taps their chin with their index finger. “The new sign is an improvement,” Bienvenu said.
But for other Deaf lesbian women, like Kisha Hopwood, 41, of Hanover, Md., the older sign is a source of pride.
The original sign “shows that I’m proud of who I am,” she said. “Moving it to the side feels like you’re trying to obscure the sign slightly or make it seem more civil.”
The variation in how people choose to sign different identities may seem confusing to some, but Stabbe sees it as a natural result of the fact that Deaf queer people have diverse experiences.
“There is no one singular way to be Deaf nor is there a singular way to be LGBTQIA+,” he said. “Language is an extension of who we are and a means for us to take pride in ourselves.”
About this story
Reporting by Amanda Morris; video by Alexa Juliana Ard; illustrations by Anna Lefkowitz; copy editing by Melissa Ngo.
Signers in order of video appearance: Cecilia Grugan, Claudia Giordano, Jerrin George, Morgan Jericho, Miss Zyafirah (whose real name is Randall “Rexy” Anderson), Sean Norman and Kisha Hopwood.
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