Segmented networks: Linguistic practices in Canadian lesbian and gay rights organizing

This article explores the linguistic practices of lesbian and gay social movement networks in Canada. It specifically focuses on Egale, the main advocacy group for lesbian and gay rights issues, describing its linguistic practices with regard to public presentation, recruitment and participation, as well as its relationships to other lesbian and gay rights groups. The main finding is that French-speaking activist networks are largely separated from English-speaking activist networks. The concept of consociationalism is applied to the relationship between the two linguistically based networks and adapted for social movement politics. The linguistically based social movement networks function separately from each other but occasionally cooperate at the elite level in pursuit of common goals. Copyrigh