Graças a Deusa – (Social) media uses of Pajubá, the Brazilian LGBTQIA+ dialect

Previous research on Brazilian Portuguese shed light on how LGBTQIA+ communities use language. More specifically, they explored how LGBTQIA+ individuals use Pajubá, the Brazilian LGBTQIA+ dialect. However, LGBTQIA+ speak in that language remains underexplored due to the only recent appearance of Queer Linguistics in Brazil. This paper scrutinizes the language attitudes of native Brazilian Portuguese speakers toward using Pajubá on (social) media specifically, given that no studies to date have provided a substantial discussion on the topic. Primary data come from an online Qualtrics survey completed by 910 participants promoted via social media and through a friend-of-a-friend technique. By analyzing the language attitudes of those speakers toward the uses of Pajubá on (social) media, this paper displays how the online/digital environment helps promote the dialect, contributing to the language variation of Brazilian Portuguese. Moreover, it shows some con- troversial uses of the dialect, for example, when non-LGBTQIA+ people, companies, and organizations appropriate Pajubá for performative allyship and commercial purposes. Lastly, it explains that the dialect creates a dialogue between people who identify as LGBTQIA+ and non-LGBTQIA+, showing how both groups embrace sexual and gender diversity and widely accept the language variation that Pajubá offers.