Language and Sexuality explores how linguistic practices and language ideologies relate to sexuality and sexual identity. Drawing on work in a variety of fields including sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, and queer theory, this volume focuses on the negotiation of meaning in both academic theory and everyday practice. The theoretical discussion in Part I assesses the current state and future possibilities of an emerging field known by many names, such as queer linguistics, language and sexuality, and language and desire, among others. These essays discuss the ongoing debates over the scope of the field and the role of queer theory in sociolinguistic analysis. PartII moves from theory to practice, examining language use in a variety of cultural settings, from the creation of a lesbian community through personals in a French magazine to magic spells among the Petalangan people of Indonesia to narratives of heterosexuality among American college fraternity men. Language and Sexuality brings together the perspectives of this emerging field's foremost scholars with fresh research, promising an engaging mix of new ideas on the many ways that language use may intersect with sexuality.