I’M DEAF AND GAY & THAT’S TOTALLY OKAY.
CONNOR MCLAREN, HEALTH RESEARCH TECHNICIAN, DEAF HEALTH COMMUNICATIONS AND QUALITY OF LIFE CENTRE.
Ever since I can remember, I have identified as gay. No internal confusion, no coming-out horror story. My label as a gay male, while it came with understandable insecurities, never greatly interfered with my daily life. I might even call myself lucky in that sense. However, a deep part of me never felt truly comfortable among the large heterosexual population surrounding me. Strike one.
directions: hearing, Deaf, straight, and gay. The straight and hearing worlds require no explanation. In the gay world, guys have shied away from me because of my immersion in American Sign Language (ASL) and Deaf culture, a concept so unfamiliar to most. In the Deaf community, I have sometimes felt unwelcome for not being “Deaf enough” because I wear a cochlear implant to hear.
Now, throw another curveball that is widely but falsely seen as a debilitating condition: being Deaf. Strike two.I grew up with the idea that I had two strikes against me. I have had to face discrimination from all
While most people have interacted with members of a minority group, very few have insight into the challenges of being a “double-minority.” Many double-minority members have few places where they feel
DISCOURSE: THE POWER OF LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION. // 27
