We Are Humans: Discourse Representations of Identities in the Tweets of Nigerian LGBT People

Abstract

Same-sex sexuality is an important topic worth consideration, especially in Africa, where this is still highly considered taboo. As a result of subsisting homophobia in the Nigerian public sphere, social media provides a safe space for collective queer voices. Queer studies in the Nigerian context have mainly been sociological and legalistic. However, linguistic studies on the media representation of same-sex sexualities have explored how heteronormativity is accentuated, without adequate attention paid to how sexual minorities have also used language to emphasize their identities and resist homophobia. Drawing on the Social Identity Theory (SIT), Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), and Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), this study examines the identities that Nigerian LGBT people construct for themselves on Twitter. I do this by considering discourses from the #EndHomophobiaInNigeria, which trended on Nigerian Twitter in 2020. Findings revealed that words, clauses, and other discursive strategies construe LGBT people as humans whose rights should be respected, as a community, and resilient. The significance of this study lies in the potential insights it provides into some of the struggles of the LGBT people for social acceptance and inclusivity, especially in a homophobic environment like Nigeria.

Culturalism and Religious fundamentalism: Lexicalisation of counter-ideologies on same-sex sexualities in selected Nigerian newspapers

“…From the linguistic perspective, scholars have also attempted to analyse discourses on sexual minorities in the Nigerian context (Adegbola, 2018(Adegbola, , 2022Gaudio, 2014;Oyebanji, 2023Oyebanji, , 2022.…”