• Gigi Doran / Constant Motion

  I had my first lesbian experience when I was twenty-one. I took acid which blew my mind. This was in the seventies, when taking drugs was the thing to do at college. One woman convinced me to follow her to her room, and somehow we began making out. She was a deaf student from Gallaudet; she's now married and straight. So we slept together. The next morning I woke up, and I was so confused. I was in a different bed in a different bedroom...

• Pablo / Black, Deaf, and Gay

  How well can you hear and how do you communicate with the hearing world? I can hear any noise but I have a difficult time identifying where the noise is coming from and what kind of noise it is. For example, I can hear fire-engine sirens and police-car sirens, but I can't tell the difference between them. I communicate with the hearing world by having hearing friends who know basic sign language. Of course, I do talk good and lipread pretty good...

• Anonymous / Cyborg 4 U

  I’m so good at reading faces now to see if they’re hearing sounds I can’t.  Teaching my lover sign language.  Misheard words and sentences become my poetry.  People who don’t like to repeat themselves are small.  I’m obsessed with communication and I’m obsessed with knowing you.  She likes to ask if my hearing aids are recording her...

• Finnegan / David versus Goliath

  David means  'Beloved One.' He is a friend of mine. He is frail and kind. He has a bad heart. He isn't frail because he has a bad heart. It's because he is frail by nature. He likes to sit with me in the yard, gossip, and absorb the warmth of the sun. We gossip a lot, but it's a very harmless sort of pastime. The gossip never gets past our meetings. We talk of what we might do to each other if.. David is well tanned and very slim. On the other hand, I occupy twice the space, and three times the density that he does...

• Gregg Brooks / Double Pleasure

  1. Communication There is almost no room for misunderstanding when two lovers communicate in the same language, and in this case, ASL enables the two lovers to become fuller persons. 2. Love It's much more natural between Deaf lovers, for they know and appreciate what it's like to be different and yet can share the same culture...

• Monique / Happy Little Bubble

  Being a Deaf lesbian means being loved in a special way. It means that I am seen. Real love looks like learning ASL to form this deep and special connection with me. It means changing how to communicate and interact. It requires communication and meeting each other in the middle. It also means showing me how I deserve to be loved, in ways that my own family is not able to, and raising my standards even higher than I thought was possible...

• Ann Silver / School Essay

  Are there any significant experiences you've had or accomplishments you realize that have helped to define you as a hearing-impaired person? During my lunch breaks I fix closed-caption decoders, and on Thursdays after school I repair TDDs free of charge. I translate Deafist slurs for some mainstreamed kids. On school vacations I visit the graves of Clerc, Cogswell, de l'Epee, Gallaudet, Massieu, Sicard, and Veditz. I can fingerspell my ABCs backwards at unflagging speed...

• MFV / Which Half Do You Want?

  I’m profoundly deaf in my left ear. Nerve issue, not a mechanical one. Right ear is okay for now  (though I know my 40s or 50s will be an interesting time). My parents are Deaf. I was mainstreamed as a child because I had enough hearing to be 'normal.' Went to school, will continue to go to school soon, have a job, generally said to have a bright future, all that stuff society likes a young man to have. I am very grateful that despite all that I was still able to learn ASL...