Introduction : Language, sexualities and desires / Helen Sauntson and Sakis Kyratzis -- Sex talk : language, desire, identity and beyond / Liz Morrish and William Leap -- 'Everyone was convinced that we were closet fags' : the role of heterosexuality in the construction of hegemonic masculinity / Jennifer Coates -- 'This sex thing is such an important issue now' : sex talk and identities in three groups of adolescent girls / Pia Pichler -- The semantics of desire : exploring desire, love and sexuality through metaphor / Sakis Kyratzis -- Queering language : a love that dare not speak its name comes out of the closet / Yvonne Dröschel -- Education, culture and the construction of sexual identity : an appraisal analysis of lesbian coming out narratives / Helen Sauntson -- The transformed gay self : the male body and its scenic presence as sites of gay self-enunciation / Stephan A. Grosse -- The subversive effect of the signals of erotic text patterning / Michael Hoey -- Going 'back to basics' : moral panics about heterosexual relationships / Lia Litosseliti -- Women like us : mediating and contesting identity in lesbian advice literature / Deborah A. Chirrey.