“And it just becomes queer slang”: Race, linguistic innovation, and appropriation within trans communities in the US South

Abstract

This article examines how seven transgender South Carolinians drew on racialized conceptions of linguistic ownership during metalinguistic discussion about queer and trans language during ethnographic interviews collected between 2020 and 2022. I explore how participants refer to distinct lexical sets when referring to “Black queer/trans language” and “white queer/trans language.” When talking about Black trans language, participants primarily referred to elements of “slang” (e.g., sis, queen), tying Blackness to informality and “coolness”, yet when describing white trans language, they referred to gender-referent terminology (e.g., demigender, nonbinary, and other “micro labels”), locating this language in relation to processes of gatekeeping and to ideologies of correctness and standardness. I argue that this distinction reflects broader ideologies of race and language, according to which Black communities are recognized for their linguistic cultural influence, while whiteness remains a prevalent, structuring power in debates about trans language.