Deaf, gay, HIV positive, and proud: narrating an alternative identity in post-apartheid South Africa

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Periodical article

Title:	Deaf, gay, HIV positive, and proud: narrating an alternative identity in post-apartheid South Africa
Authors:	Willemse, Karin Morgan, Ruth Meletse, John
Year:	2009
Periodical:	Canadian Journal of African Studies
Volume:	43
Issue:	1
Pages:	83-104
Language:	English
Geographic term:	South Africa
Subjects:	homosexuality physically disabled identity biography
External link:	https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00083968.2010.9707584
Abstract:	This article explores the ways in which John Meletse, a young black man who is an openly gay Deaf activist living with HIV, prioritizes some identities over others when telling about his life. The article is based on interviews with John in 2001, 2005 and 2007, with a focus on the 2005 interviews as this narrative clearly encapsulates his coming of age as a gay Deaf person (the capital 'D' indicating a person who identifies as culturally Deaf and uses signed language as a first language). The authors explore the ways in which sexual, gender, and 'disabled' identities intersect in alternative constructions of masculinity. A close reading of parts of John's biographic narrative allows them to show rather than tell how his coming to terms with sexual identity as a process is enacted by telling about his life. Notes, ref., sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract]