In this talk, I will present data emerging from ethnographic research carried out with an LGBT youth group in the north of England (Jones 2016, 2018). I will use discourse analysis and sociocultural linguistic theory to show how this group of young people construct and make use of the notion of ‘being normal’ in their identity work. I will show that they draw on
homonormative ideologies in their identity construction, but also that this happens in
response to the homophobia and ‘othering’ they have experienced from those in their local community. I will also argue that their discourse must be understood via an intersectional framework; the ways that the young people talk about being LGBT reveal the relevance of their socioeconomic class, and they also draw on racist ideologies in their identity construction as LGBT people.
