“They Tell Me Frequently That I’m Going to Hell, Which Is Fine”: LGBTQ+ Young Adults’ Evaluative Retellings of Exclusionary Everyday Interactions

Abstract

This study examines LGBTQ+ young adults’ evaluative retellings of exclusionary everyday interactions through the frameworks of appraisal theory (Martin & White, 2005) and the sociocultural linguistic approach to identity (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005). The analysis uses data from five focus groups, during which participants reflected on everyday interactions in which they believed their queerness made them stand out. Appraisal theory is used to characterize how affect, judgment, and appreciation are operative in these reflections, and how strategies of engagement and graduation further demonstrate how speakers feel about their experiences. Grounded in theories of intersubjective identity construction (e.g., Ochs, 1993; Bucholtz & Hall, 2005), this study emphasizes interpersonal interaction as a key site of identity development, foregrounding interactions in which participants sensed that their LGBTQ+ identities were salient. I identify three types of responses to these interactions as reported by participants: minimization, fear, and exasperation. Each response achieves different goals in the moment of exclusion as well as in reflection after the fact, including providing a form of coping mechanism. The attitudes encoded in these reflections demonstrate how participants think and feel about their social worlds, their interlocutors, and themselves. I also argue that the focus group reflections serve as additional sites for participants to reimagine and renegotiate their identity constructions. The study concludes with implications for research on anti-queer microaggressions, as well as guidance for mitigating harm in everyday interactions more broadly.