Deaf Rainbow UK: How more LGBTQ+ signs are being recognised in an online glossary (BSL)

British Sign Language has always been rich and this is no exception to Deaf people who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and wider. Gay Sign Variation was researched some years ago.

The last decade has recognised more and more English LGBTQ+ vocabulary used especially to reflect and respect differences within a richly diverse community.

Volunteer led, Deaf Rainbow UK which was set up in 2018, did some work to address the lack of consistency or knowledge of specific LGBTQ+ vocabulary. But more work was evidently going to be needed.

On November 23 2023 an additional 20 clips were added to the Deaf Rainbow UK Glossary webpage as a result of the hard work by individuals at University College London who applied for a £4,700 funded project from the UCL LGBQT+ Equality Implementation Group. The project was to:

– Develop the relationship between Deaf and Hearing UCL staff members (LGBTQ+ and allies)

– Develop the BSL Glossary page, given more and more terminology in LGBTQ+ field. Working closely in collaboration with the charity Deaf Rainbow UK (which supports, informs and represents Deaf LGBTQ+ people in the UK) the project received over 109 proposed words for development into BSL. The top 20 frequent words were prioritized, given this is a small-funded project.

These words are: Ally, Attraction, Bicurious, Bisexual, Cisgender, Gay, Gender, Lesbian, Monogamy, Open Relationship, Panromantic, Pansexual, Polyamorous, Questioning, Sexuality, Sexually Fluid, Straight, Throuple, Transman and Transwoman.

Working closely with 8 focus group members, all Deaf and LGBTQ+, several hours were spent discussing and thinking about such words. Proposed signs were then shared with the Deaf LGBTQ+ community for feedback. More than 40 responses were collated to lead to the final glossary as you can see here.

We held a Deaf Drag Bingo event (using the signs and not numbers!) with over 80 people in attendance. Deaf and Hearing attendees engaged with activities and enjoyed learning about the new signs. The hearing attendees also enjoyed a deaf awareness session at the beginning.

The learning and evaluation from this project will be used to hopefully apply for a bigger grant with more vocabulary as well as a road-show style approach to training the UK population of Deaf people and their allies. It is so important to have more resources to support the ability to communicate and work with Deaf BSL users in the LGBTQ+ community.

“So lots of eye-opening and thought-rendering conversations last night, plus great humour as well, a great night out and a great way to meet others”

Huge thanks go to everyone for their involvement and support. And special thanks again to UCL LEIG for the grant that made this possible.

Notes:

– Remember these new signs are not official. As any new signs/words, it is up to the community whether they use these signs or not. The community does not really decide top-down.

– We will welcome any feedback via DCAL or Deaf Rainbow UK.

By Tyron Woolfe, Patrick Rosenburg, Kate Rowley and Calum Medlock