El "rostro" lingüístico de la discriminación hacia el colectivo homosexual

Abstract

Language is a set of signs that allows the human being to interact with those around him, through which he expresses his thoughts and gives concrete unity to ideas; it is a cognitive process with which reality is known, interpreted and transformed, becoming a bridge between communities to make agreements that benefit social development. However, there are harmful linguistic uses for interpersonal relationships and community ties, such as those that denote and connote discrimination, and with it, violence to the integrity of the participants in the communicative process that is established in social interaction; this demonstrates the need to reflect on the meaning assigned to words in a specific historical and geographical context. People who commune and/or construct themselves with identities other than heterosexuality, specifically homosexuality, are frequently discriminated against with linguistic practices that symbolize mockery and disqualification, and with whom they also devalue the thoughts and actions of those who are singled out for breaking with what is socially established for masculinity and femininity. This group has integrated a slang that alludes to its dynamics and daily life, with meanings from the geographical context where it is used; but in this social practice of language, there are expressions that respect and recognize sexual diversity, as well as expressions that violate homosexual behavior patterns. This paper presents an exploration of the use of language in discriminatory practices towards homosexual people, with the objective of reflecting on the need to establish communicative links of acceptance to differences and diversity, which promote the recognition and resignification of homosexuality.