Coming out with it: the relationship between language and emerging identity in young LGBT+ people

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Within fractions of a second, our voices tell listeners a lotabout ourselves, about our age, gender, level of education,and for some, even our sexuality. For teenagers in neatschool uniforms, language is one of the few resourcesavailable to actively present aspects of our identity anddistance ourselves from other identities and groups. Whileresearch into language and adolescents demonstrates theircentrality in changing and progressing language, much lessresearch considers the nuanced and complex relationshipsthese young people have with categories of identity thatare imposed on them. With the increased visibility ofpositive LGBT+ role models, who don't conform to gendernorms, alongside constant anti-LGBT+ backlash in themedia, the navigation of adolescent identity throughlanguage offers an invaluable insight into the socialmechanics of language change, identity and discrimination.This project will investigate the speech and language ofyoung in secondary school LGBT+ 'Pride clubs' acrossLondon, as an new site for high school ethnographicresearch in emerging identities across different contextsthat are more (or less) inclusive or tolerant. Thecombination of qualitative and quantitative methods acrossthe multiple sites will create a body of data for analysingaspects of language such as sound, but also become aresources for use in wider research investigating aspects ofgender, sexuality and adolescence.