That sign is also known as "homosexual". My hearing friend is getting good at ASL and he uses those signs for joking around.kuifje75 said:I have seen other older sign, start by using the sign "taste" then move it up across the head to back.
Nancy said:I've seen both ways to sign "gay" as:
1. G on the chin (thumb and index both touch on chin).
2. middle finger brush from temple to back of head (as rjr2006 said it was the sign for homosexual).
When I was in H.S., I've seen some of the deaf used this sign "flip the hand down as in a feminate fashion" for the degrading word for homosexual ("f--").
tegumi said:Is the G on the chin with the fingers horizontal (side to side) or vertical (up and down)?
rjr2006 said:g sign on the chin is vertical.
In SC, we sign it vertically; that is, the fingertips of the "G" point up, and tap the center front of the chin.EyesBlueDeaf said:Actually it is horizontal - end of thumb and index finger touch on side of chin - tap chin once or twice.
Reba said:In SC, we sign it vertically; that is, the fingertips of the "G" point up, and tap the center front of the chin.
That sign you described, for me, is "queer" which the locals members of GLBT are using to take the power away from the degratory term of "queer". It was the same thing as the Hispanic people use "Chicano" or "Chicana" to take the power away (that term was considered as an offensive word in 30s and 40s).kuifje75 said:I have seen other older sign, start by using the sign "taste" then move it up across the head to back. It's an old sign and probably considered derogative.
Nesmuth said:Mexicans seem to have signs representing 'gay' which is poking at the side cheek on your face like imitating a mole on the face.
tegumi said:Also, about the other sign that looks like "taste" is it actually signing taste and then moving the finger over your head? Or is it just similar to taste?
http://www.stevefriess.com/archive/theadvocate/seen.htm said:The commonly used shorthands regarding homosexuality immediately betray a historic bias among the deaf that is only now starting to fade. It could be the letter "f" against the chin, signifying "faggot." Or touching the middle finger to the tip of the nose, then swooping it dramatically up over the head, for "fairy."
Or, perhaps most offensive of all, to describe a lesbian one might make a gun formation with the thumb and index finger, then put the crux of that formation to the edge of the mouth to indicate "cunnilingus."
Thus, in a rare inconvenience for a mode of communication that's all about shortcuts, more progressive folks literally spell it out. Some deaf youths and activists have embraced those offensive signs to remove their sting, using them among themselves much the same way many of the non-deaf have modernized the term "queer" from a slur to a salute. And some have taken to holding the letter "g" (for "gay") next to the chin as a recent linguistic innovation.
But most are reduced, at that crucial and frightening moment of coming out to someone, to letting their fingers do the cumbersome talking. If hearing people find the words "I am gay" to be the three hardest words to utter, just picture a deaf person with not only three tough words but three even harder letters: "I am G-A-Y."
gnarlydorkette said:snip, snip..
kuifje, I think the degoratry sign for "gay/queer" is the sign which I oft saw my interperter signing in my course about gay/lesbian issues which I found offensive because it resembles the sign for "idiot/ignorant"... he uses the manual "C" and positions it on the side of head near the temple of head and twist the "C"... the manual "C" may be replaced with the manual "Q" to indicate "QUEER" term.
An interesting variation of "queer" available at http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/aslweb/Q/W3140.htm
EyesBlueDeaf said:the link above and the hanshape 'C' ...That's not the definition of gay/lesbian as queer. Those signs are described as 'odd / strange'
We Queers are not odd / strange
I have never seen anyone use that sign for "queer" as meaning a homosexual person. I see it used for meaning something is queer as in strange, unusual, or odd. For example, the English sentence, "My goodness, what a queer little lamp that is."gnarlydorkette said:...An interesting variation of "queer" available at http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/aslweb/Q/W3140.htm