PSA: Queer

[rm]

(This is an outgrowth of a comment thread I'm having with someone in their journal. If that someone is you, no worries, we're cool).

Queer (as an adjective, we will not be using the noun here) is not inherently synonymous with gay and lesbian or LGBT.¹

Many LGBT people do not like or choose to use queer and/or feel it to represent something additional or instead of gay and lesbian or LGBT.

Because queer was originally a slur and not all LGBT people like to use it,² it's generally best that straight people don't use the word unless talking about people and groups that self-identify as queer.

Queer can be considered a non-assimilationist word. Some LGBT people who are not interested in getting equal rights by proving we're just like straight people prefer the term. (This is like when I rant about how "I'm queer and you can tell and I like it that way.")

Some non-trans people who are gender non-conforming use the term or variations there of (i.e., genderqueer).

Some trans people who are additionally not straight use the term as a shorthand way of encompassing multiple identities.

Some people who would traditionally be called "bisexual" use the term to avoid the reinforcement of a binary gender dichotomy.

Some people prefer queer because it removes the separation between men and women in the LGBT community, breaks down barriers between bisexual and other orientation identities, and can be more inclusive of the T part of the LGBT (which often gets pushed aside, because oppressed groups can be crappy to each other too).

Others like it because it's only one syllable.

Additionally queer is sometimes used to encompass kink, polyamorous and other non-traditional relationship styles in a way that may or may not be related to LGBT individuals depending on the community.³

As usual, I don't speak for all LGBT or queer people, just myself and my experience of our communities. If you have questions or more to add, consider the comments a free for all. I'm particularly interested in other people's sense and connotations for the word as ongoing discussion in the original thread is revealing that they are highly varied.

---

¹ A commenter reminds me that LGBT is just not enough these days, nor is LGBTQ, which you'll also often see. The full acronym these days often includes not just LGBT, but Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Asexual and more.
² It's also just been brought to my attention that age may be a factor in how one reacts to queer so this PSA might seem more or less peculiar to you depending on your age.
³ Please see comments for additional discussion of this as there is disagreement on this one. It is problematic for many, and I tend to agree, although the arguments for its inclusion in queer also make a lot of sense.

ETA: Please read the comments. This is such an awesome display of diverse identities, respectful discussion about fraught issues and random people making friends I can't quite get over it. I am loving the LJ today.

Comments

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I'm so late for the party!

So many interesting threads :)

As another person who comes from a non-anglophone country the term "queer" does not have the derogatory baggage many people associate with it and only when I began to look around for what it actually meant outside Queer Theory (which in Israel trickled down into QUILTBAG(!!!!) politics) I realised I couldn't use that word at home (coming from an anglophone household) and get away with it - hearing my parents say "queer" and "bisexual" is just cringe worthy for different reasons.

Queer in Israel means Radical Queer, id-ing that way positions me in a very a specific political arena (Left, Anarcho-Socialist, Anti-Occupation, Anti-Assimilation, etc.), and it is a word I will usually use in the QUILTBAG(!!!!!) community, rather than when I'm among straight people - there I will usually say "gay", "lesbian" or "bi" depending on the context, but Queer is my word.
With Queer I have camaraderie, I have history, I have a way of viewing my body and desire and connecting with communities farther away from where I'm at.

Usually if I'm mad at erasure of female sexuality it will usually be the abuse of the various bi identities (bi-curiosity is a slue in my mind as it reduces people to tools for exploration rather than people having fun together) and usually bisexual girls will be used for "lesbian titillation".

There's more, but maybe in another post :)

Thank you for this post.

[bitsyrant.livejournal.com]

Sweet lord, but I came late to this party. My apologies if I reiterate any previous sentiment (I read as much as I could)

Queer, to me, can be a unifying term which is good but it can also be homogenizing as well which is not so good. The alphabet soup exists for a reason. There are people who fit snugly into each of those letters. Simultaneously though, there are just as many people that don't. I ID as queer because I'm a little from every column but I'm not quite L G B or T so queer is the nonbox I fit into best.

While I recognize the concerns re: homogenization, I also see an inherent flaw in the arguments I sometimes see against usage of queer from people who don't want to be homogenized. I hope this won't come across as generalizing but, in my experience, a lot of queer hate stems from older, upper class, white gay men and, when they do protest, it seems less because they find the term derogatory and more because they don't want to be associated with the rest of the rabble. In other words: it's about privilege.

Again, it's just something I've noticed while I reading comments on the popular LGBT blogs out there. Has anyone else seen this? What do you think can be done to combat that kind of mentality?

[tacky-tramp.livejournal.com]

This is interesting. I'll keep my eyes peeled for it.

[riverrocks.livejournal.com]

Queer works for me for so many reasons. For one, it isn't so rooted in the gender binary, which comes in handy since I don't really feel fit there and I tend to be attracted to people who challenge (or have been kicked out of) it as well. Also, I started coming out (it's been a long multifaceted journey) in the mid 1980s, and have always seemed to find more welcome in the communities that saw/see attraction as a political (and when done right, community building) act as a sexual one. and in the 80s and 90s, queer was the awning those of us wanting to change the status quo without assimilating gathered under.

then we throw in the fact that i'm trans and genderqueer and it gets really fun.

for me, queer and genderqueer are two separate (though, granted, similar) states. they overlap and intertwine and can make amazing music (or one heck of a mess) while doing it, but they are distinct. For me, queer is my attraction, affection, lust and love for people who break the rules of presentation and/or desire, and my willingness to do what I can to change the world to a safer more welcoming place for those of us who wear that label (and any others who will benefit from those changes). Gendergueer is knowing, viscerally, I fit neither in the gender I was labeled at birth or the one presented to me by greater society as the other option. Closer to and more comfortable in the second option than the first (and thus why I have transitioned to the extent I've been able to access) but far from a clear or true fit.

None of this is simple or clear cut, and in my experience, it is when we are using words like queer to simplify that we go wrong. short hand, perhaps, but simple, not so much.

[riverrocks.livejournal.com]

(more thinking after posting)
also, though i have a different take on it now, at least part of why I embraced the word queer for myself in the 80s and 90s was because it bothered the older gay and lesbian folks I was encountering, folks that wanted us to calm down and blend in and stop making trouble so that safety would trickle down to us. Looking back on it, those were also folks with the privilege and class status and stamina to pass enough to have two lives. There were other older folks, not very many, but a few, mostly folks I worked with in restaurants or encountered on the streets or in the bars, who didn't understand why the word queer would feel like freedom to me but lauded me for being brave enough to reclaim it.

huh. does having been out (in some form or another) for more than twenty years make me an older folk now? and what am I not getting about how things work now?

[ubixtiz.livejournal.com]

I'm really enjoying reading people's discussions of why they do or don't use 'queer'.

I use it about myself for some of the reasons described above. I'm trans, genderqueer, and attracted to people of various genders, and as a result I prefer identification options that don't depend on a binary gender model (or a comparison between my gender and anyone else's). Of those options, 'queer' is the shortest, most encompassing of various aspects of my identity, and most widely understood. I also like that it's fairly nonspecific because it gives me a chance to feel like my personal identity is more than the term I'm using. 'Queer' gives so little specific information that I sometimes feel it leaves more room for that information to be illustrated by my personality rather than my label.

I'm too young, I think, to feel the full force of the derogatory use of the term: growing up I knew it wasn't nice to say, but it was too outdated/not regionally appropriate to be featured in peer-to-peer taunting when I was in school, and I rarely heard anyone say it at all. Most of my familiarity with the term (before becoming involved with LGBT groups and their reclaimed usage) came through books.

[ubixtiz.livejournal.com]

Also noting, because it's come up in other threads, that I use 'pansexual' to refer to my orientation when I feel like getting specific about that, for similar reasons of non-binary-dependence and inclusion. 'Bisexual' doesn't work for me because I'm attracted to more than two genders.

I can't quite get over it. I am loving the LJ today.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

You did a Good Thing.8)

Re: I can't quite get over it. I am loving the LJ today.

[browneyedgirl65.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I agree. I'm kicking myself for not tracking this earlier -- this many comments makes it really hard to find the new ones without using the tracking feature *facepalm*

But, wow! I'm loving all the comments and perspectives here, too. And the aha! moments...

[karathephantom.livejournal.com]

I do think age plays into it a lot, and in interesting ways. I'm a junior in college who heard the term "queer" first as a positive thing, and only upon a bit of researching history discovered its pejorative history. But its negative history was kind of theoretical in ways that "dyke" and "faggot" weren't to me, because unlike those words, I'd never heard anyone use queer as an insult. As someone who doesn't at all identify with the gender binary, I liked identifying as queer pretty unreservedly for years, while understanding and respecting that many people didn't feel the same way.

Then one day it all kind of changed. I was at a "Christian youth conference" in my senior year of high school and the president of Liberty Theological Seminary used the word "queer" to mock and dismiss Mel White, the founder of Soulforce (a gay Christian organization). To an audience of 6th-12th graders. And they laughed.

Living closeted in the south, I'd heard plenty of homophobic talk. But this was a whole new level of hate to me, especially as a teen who'd been using "queer" as their primary identifier. I finally understood in my heart, not just my head, why so many people have a negative reaction to that word.


I still ID as queer, but much more purposefully and thoughtfully than before. When I say "I'm queer" now, it's a word that means something about my pride, not just a factual descriptor of my orientation.

Younger folks don't usually have "queer" wielded against them as a weapon, in my experience. But the one time I did? It changed my paradigm on a lot of things. (And was probably the most hurtful experience of my short gay life up until then.) It's important that we're still talking about it, because it is, without a doubt, a supremely relevant conversation today.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

I have wondered recently if the word queer was a better self descriptor because oh I don't even know where to begin with what is going on in my head. But then I feel sort of awkward, as if I'm not queer enough or activist enough or what - which I recognize as totally a product of my own head. But I think too it is influenced by the Austin QUILTBAG scene (holy shit you guys I love that acronym so hard) that is pretty divisive. (So much so that at a recent meeting of the Austin Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce there was the following:

De Humphries, member of the AGLCC Board of Directors and who also sits on the Board at the Austin Gay and Lesbian Pride Foundation (because that's not at all shady!) confirmed my suspicions about the general tensions and exclusivity of Austin Pride during the ensuing one-sided conversation about the potential threat that QueerBomb and affiliated events might pose to the "official" festivities.

Humphries stated that QueerBomb looks like nothing but empty promises. Yet she seemed defensive, and went on the offensive, adding that if "bisexuals and transvestites" want to be represented, they need to "do it themselves" and stop "pissing on our parade."

This is the former VICE PRESIDENT of the AGLCC, someone who still sits on the Board. This is a woman who is, for all intents and purposes, the public face of LGBTQI (at least business and marketing in) Austin.

Edit: I wanted to add the link to the awesome QueerBomb speech, given after the mayor declared 6/4 to be QueerBomb day.

[weirdquark]

I never really actively was part of the gay community before moving to Texas -- before I was in liberal areas that were more accepting and it just didn't seem as necessary.

Also, hi, fellow possibly-queer-identified person living in Texas!

Question for the group

[weirdquark]

So I went to a workshop to get my official "hi, I'm a safe person to talk to about gay stuff" card, and since the LGBTQetc. group is in Texas and a lot of the people who join haven't really interacted with gay people before, they brought in some students who introduced themselves and talked a little about their experience with being gay in Texas.

The way they introduced themselves wasn't something I had come across before: "Hi, I'm a gay." Or "Hi, I'm a bi." Not "I'm a gay man" or "a gay woman", or even "I'm gay" but "I'm a gay", full stop. "Hi, I'm a lesbian" is grammar that's familiar to me -- is changing gay and bisexual to be the same part of speech a regional thing? Or an age thing? Or even just a thing I've never noticed, because it's very rare that I find out that someone is gay by them announcing it like that instead of mentioning their same-sex partner in passing or something.

[citrinesunset.livejournal.com]

I like the word queer, and the versatility of it. I like that it's a broad term, and I also like that identifying as queer can mean being part of a movement or community as well as being part of your identity.

I do call myself queer sometimes, because I think it sums me up well. And I feel like I can reference my gender identity as well as my sexual orientation.

But I'm also a bit careful about when I use the word, since not everyone sees it the same (I recently tried to explain it to my mom. She had no idea that some people identify as queer, and was only familiar with the word as a slur). And also, I don't want to give people who aren't very familiar with these things the impression that it's okay to call people queer in general. Unless you know someone identifies as queer and is okay with it, I think it's safer to stick to LGBT or a similar term.

And I do call myself bisexual a good deal. For one thing, I feel like if I didn't, I'd be giving into biphobia and assumptions about what it means to be bi. Also, I don't feel like I'm limiting myself by identifying as bisexual. I've never felt that being bi means I can't be attracted to someone who's genderqueer, for example.

The only problem I've had with bisexual is that it does give the impression that I'm going to be actively interested in both men and women. For example, when I tried a couple dating sites and put myself as bisexual, I was hoping to meet women, but I only got attention from straight men. I'm attracted to both men and women, but that doesn't mean the attraction or interest is equal.

I'm kind of undecided about how I feel about kinky and poly calling themselves queer. On the one hand, I think these things can definitely be a part of our sexual identities. I knew, on some level, that I was kinky long before I knew I was interested in women. But it does kind of bother me when people who are straight group themselves with queer people. Especially since being kinky or poly doesn't mean someone is open-minded or a queer ally. I don't know, honestly.

[jeliza]

Especially since being kinky or poly doesn't mean someone is open-minded or a queer ally.

That is the kicker for me, as well. (And when I had forgotten that this was true because I kept to a really small social circle for a while, I got introduced to FetLife, and damned if that knowledge didn't come roaring back in spades. *shudder*)

And I think your point about giving into biphobia/feeding assumptions about bisexuality is a good ones to keep in mind, too; I will admit that queer not only *feels* more accurate for me because of gender issues (both personal and conception thereof) but it takes less energy than dealing with the baggage of bisexuality, most of the time.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

I'd given this issue a lot of thought before, and come to the same conclusion as apparently many have-- "bi" is far too strongly appropriated by the sorts of girls who make out with other girls to titillate guys, and as others have said, has this strong connotation that you're interested in both at once. Never in my life have I really ever felt that "bisexual" described me. I have loved both men and women, but am very strongly monogamous-- the bit of my brain that looks for sex partners just switches off and I can't help it-- and for the last 8 years it's been a man, the same man. I don't like people assuming that I'm another straight person, but if I say I'm bi they assume I want to sleep with them/their boyfriend, like, right now.
I do feel a little odd appropriating "queer", like I don't deserve it-- I haven't been threatened seriously in a good decade, though about seven years ago on the Jersey City Light Rail a drunk teenager, put up to it by her posse and probably prompted by my nervous eyeing of them as they got onto the car, swaggered up and accosted me and my partner, asking if we were lesbians, and when my ponytailed boyfriend turned around, quite innocently (he'd dozed off on my shoulder and didn't hear her) and said, beardedly, hoarsely, malely, "What?" she ran screaming. He had no idea what he'd just avoided by virtue of being in apparent possession of male genitals; I had my hands clenched around my bag and was frantically cataloguing the possibilities of exits vs my chances at toughing them all out-- but i feel even odder just letting people assume that I'm totally onboard with their heteronormative assumptions.

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

I don't like people assuming that I'm another straight person, but if I say I'm bi they assume I want to sleep with them/their boyfriend, like, right now.

I'm all too familiar with that one, myself. And if it's not an invitation to join the party, it's "So, do you, like, have threesomes or something? Does your boyfriend know you're bi? Is he a bisexual too?"

And so on, and so forth. Sometimes it's amusing and sometimes I just want to bash my head into the wall or smack someone.

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

Yup, we definitely need to have an easier/more inclusive acronym.

I definitely have my issues with the word "queer," although I do use it from time to time when describing my gender identity. Mostly, my usage of the word depends on the receptiveness or relative understanding of "queer" culture/identity of those to whom I speak. I try to choose my words more carefully around those who possess a larger dictionary of queer-related terminology, but generalize a little more around those who maybe know of a few LGBTQQIA* people, those people being the extent of their knowledge of what it means not to be somehow sex- or gender-normative. For example, I use the word "bisexual" around people who still have that awful habit of saying something is gay when they really mean that they don't like it; on the other hand, I would describe myself as "pansexual" to a person who spends a considerable amount of time thinking about concepts of non-normative identity and sexuality. That's also just a part of who I am, though: I tend to adapt my behavior to fit whatever social setting I'm in at the time, whereas many people would consider that approach to be inauthentic. I often question it as well because I'm often doing it without being fully aware of myself.

But anyway...

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

Actually, I should amend this comment because I neglected to mention that I don't feel I should be described with labels alone. Nor should anyone else, for that matter. It's just unfortunately, labels are sometimes necessary when talking to people who have issues with abstract thought.

[cheshire-bitten.livejournal.com]

I liked this, however I feel it needs to be pointed out that many trans(including medically transitoning) people also define themselves as trans and genderqueer

[eredien]

Good point. :) I don't think those two categories are mutually exclusive for trans folks, wherever they are or choose to be on the medical-transition spectrum, or even if they're not on the medical-transition spectrum.

I know quite a few trans people who I think would identify as genderqueer--probably not just "genderqueer," or even just "trans and genderqueer," either.

[pineapplechild.livejournal.com]

Ah, queer. I grew up reading the kind of stuff that meant queer had the "politely euphemistic" or "odd" meanings. And I'd love to use it to describe myself, for a lot of the reasons others have-- I don't like the common meanings that bi gets for a female in the college age bracket (ie, kisses other girls while drunk for male kicks, easy, etc), the way it opens up the gender dichotomy, both in who I am attached to and how I personally identify-- but I always feel like a bit of a hipster prat whenever I use it out loud.
It doesn't actually have the non-assimilationist bent for me, oddly. Perhaps because I, uh, would actually be seen as a "good gay", I suppose. (I'm not saying that's a good thing, but it just is.) It's always hit more that "just a bit odd, which, isn't everyone?" meaning for me.

[of-polyhymnia.livejournal.com]

I was going to ask about academic use, but it seems to have been covered already!

I wrote a paper on sexuality for a music class this semester, and initially had used queer to describe the composers I was discussing, but my professor suggested I use homosexual instead, as queer can be seen as really politicizing. I found "homosexual" awkward also, as I was writing about the 1930s-50s, when the term was, as I understand it, just starting to become widely used and seen as an identity rather than an action, and not all of the composers who acted on homosexual feelings identified as homosexual. However, I understand a reluctance to use queer.

My experience in this situation was slightly more tangled up as I ID as bisexual privately, which my professor didn't know, but am not really a part of the LGBTQetc. community. And my professor is gay, but not publicly, and I was anxious not to offend or appropriate. But it is a generally fairly awkward problem in academia. I have to say, I probably will continue to use it generally in academic writing & discussion, particularly since my general field is even earlier.

[eredien]

This is a hard question. I think that "homosexual" can be seen as really politicizing in a more recent context, too. Take a look at the "ex-homosexual" or "Christian anti-homosexual" or anti-gay-marriage lobby's language sometime. They NEVER use the words "gay," "lesbian," "queer," etc in their literature. If that's not a politicized use of the word "homosexual" I don't know what is.

[brilliant-snark.livejournal.com]

So late to the party, here. :)

I have come, very recently, to love the word queer. I previously identified as bisexual and poly. Then the bi transitioned to pansexual, because I became dissatisfied limiting myself to a binary I didn't even feel I fit. Because I'm also gender-fluid. Biologically female, but comfortable in this ambiguous middle ground of male/female. More and more male. So anyway, with my acceptance/announcement of my genderqueerness, queer just became this wonderful umbrella word that covered all my quirks, and changed what people assumed. Man, was I tired of stating "I'm pan and poly" and people assuming "So, are you looking to have an orgy?" *headdesk* "Queer" doesn't immediately lead to that. What it does sometimes lead to is more conversation and discussion, to find out what it encompasses for me. And that works. :) Queer also works great for my spouse...who is biologically male and recently began a journey identifying as trans, and is also attracted only to women.

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

I use queer to describe myself because I feel it both encompasses bi/poly/BDSM and connects those multiple identities of mine to other flavors of LGT folks. Also it has vowels in, as compared to the LBGTQ alphabet soup, and the question of what we do with repeat letters (such as Q for questioning and queer, T for trans and for two-spirit).

In my circles it has come far enough from being an insult that I wouldn't mind, or even notice, straight people using it to describe people or organizations that might easily self-identify that way, as long as a) they aren't using it in a way that implies insult and b) they don't know that those people don't self-identify as queer.

So "the queer student groups are having a debate over whether to include the BDSM club in their annual street fair" would strike me as entirely reasonable even if not all the queer student organizations had queer in the name.
OTOH, "look at those queers holding hands!" is right out.

The other factor is that I think of queer as a social identity, not just a personal attraction. That's not to say I don't think closeted people can be queer -- just that in order to be queer you have to conceptualize yourself as having something to be closeted about. So a character in a story who is from a place that never had discrimination, or who doesn't know there are any others like his or herself, or who is hot for a particular same-sex person but does not feel that impacts their public persona such that there's anything to disclose (or not), I would not think of that character as queer, though I might as gay or bi.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

The other factor is that I think of queer as a social identity, not just a personal attraction.
I really agree with this, though I have to say that the way I conceptualise "queer" is not so much the closet, but as a position of Other and owning that Otherness, so the character in a story that comes from a society in which there is no closet, but comes to, for example, our current Western one, I would view as queer, rather than gay or bi, because those can be very rigid categories, unlike queer which is very contingent.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

You know I self-identify queer because it's the only word that adequately describes what's going in here. I'm not bisexual as such, and I've never related to my straight-appearing relationships (or, for that matter, my gay-appearing ones) in a normative way, either prior to or after coming out as trans. My body any my life experience will never fully accommodate anything dyadic. I'm kinky, I'm poly, etc.

At this rate, I'll need to move to a major metropolis in order to even have a dating pool ever again. ;)

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Some days I feel like I did to draw a giant chart on a piece of poster board.

[rarelylynne.livejournal.com]

I use "queer and women's studies" a lot professionally as a shorthand for our Gender Studies collection,(one of my work responsibilities) but only once it is explained as "women's studies and LGBTQALHABETSOUP" or "non-heteronormative sexuality and women's studies"

My older gay male colleague who founded the Gender Studies collection still refers to it as the "Gay and Lesbian Studies" collection, and himself as the "Gay and Lesbian Studies" Librarian.


I use queer or bisexual in real life to self-identify, because despite having been married to a lovely guy for 10+ years, it doesn't erase the 10 years before that when I pretty much exclusively dated women.

My lovely colleague still doesn't think that I exist as a bisexual, because bisexuals don't exist. He seems to think that I'm straight, but I know all of the "passwords" because I was a four-year-queer in college. *sighs*

He hates the term queer, so yes, I'm using it rather pointedly in this context, since he has a habit of erasing my experiences in this community by forgetting that I exist. I often have to remind him of transgender/transsexual folks existing, too.

I love him dearly, and respect him greatly, but he does take some reminding on occasion.

[imaginarycircus.livejournal.com]

Genderqueer is a term I have trouble completely comprehending because it seems so malleable and people seem to use it to mean so many different things. I like the idea of having genderqueer politics as in I believe people can't be put into neat little boxes and labeled conveniently and they are who they are and they love whomever they love and that is cool. But I know it probably means something more than that, but I need to do more reading.

I do use the word queer to mean odd, but almost never to mean anything LGBT--mostly because I am straight and cis. Occasionally I will use it if a close friend self identifies that way--but usually to say something about "the queer community" here in Cambridge or what have you.

Always late to these parties.

[lovefromgirl.livejournal.com]

Additionally queer is sometimes used to encompass kink, polyamorous and other non-traditional relationship styles in a way that may or may not be related to LGBT individuals depending on the community.

Thank you for thinking of this aspect of things.

That would be why I use "queer" for myself -- not for anyone else, God knows -- along with, of course, the host of other reasons you describe. The thing is that I'm not bi, and. I'm actually flexible in a whole lot of ways that don't fit anyone's binary. I'm not-straight, but I don't feel any other identity-word really does the trick to describe what I am (as opposed to what I'm not). I wish there were a word without such history behind it, because although I am young (24), I try to respect history and the impact it has on the way we live now.

[supremegoddess1.livejournal.com]

I like the identity of queer for myself. I use bisexual dyke, too, but that's not really accurate either, and I feel like pansexual just feels weird and not descriptive enough of my leanings towards women.

Language is weird, innit?

[natf.livejournal.com]

I am sufficiently British and old enough that the first thing I think when I see the word "queer" is "strange" or "weird". When reading LJ and so on, I add an 'intarwebz' filter to my language parser so that I take context into account. This is pretty hard work, tiring and adds a spoon-cost to reading. It is also non-intuitive and I often forget to apply it when tired. This can (and does) lead to misunderstanding and drama.

To say nothing of reading (for example) Torchwood fiction that mentions "downtown" with respect to Cardiff (we say "the town centre" or "into town") and "sidewalks" anywhere in the UK (we call them "pavements").

Reading anything on the web is a complex task these days. So many layers of context, dialect and age-related slang.

[rm.livejournal.com]

It is my understanding that queer remains an anti-gay slur in the UK. Or is that only as a noun? Certainly, the word's usage in CoE caused a huge amount of uproar amongst both UK and US people on LJ.

[ladyofthelog.livejournal.com]

I haven't combed through all the comments yet, but I really recommend reading Suzanna Danuta Walters' essay, "From Here to Queer: Radical Feminism, Postmodernism, and the Lesbian Menace (Or, Why Can't a Woman Be More Like a Fag?)"

My main critique of the new popularity of "queer" (theory and, less so, politics) is that it often (and once again) erases lesbian specificity and the enormous difference that gender makes, evacuates the importance of feminism, and rewrites the history of lesbian feminism and feminism generally. Now this is not to say that strongly identified lesbians have not embraced queer theory and politics, or that those who do so are somehow acting in bad faith or are "antifeminist." Indeed, what makes queer theory so exciting in part is the way in which so many different kinds of theorists have been attracted to its promise. Many lesbians (including myself) have been attracted to queer theory out of frustration with a feminism that, they believe, either subsumes lesbianism under the generic category woman or poses gender as the transcendent category of difference, thus making cross-gender gay alliances problematic. To a certain extent, I, too, share this excitement and embrace the queer move that can complicate an often too-easy feminist take on sexual identity that links lesbianism (in the worst-case scenario) to an almost primordial and timeless motherbond or a hazy woman-identification. At the same time, however, I fear that many lesbians' engagement with queer theory is informed itself by a rudimentary and circumscribed (revisionist) history of feminism and gender-based theory that paints an unfair picture of feminism as rigid, homophobic, and sexless. As Biddy Martin notes, "The work of complicating our theories has too often proceeded, however, by way of polemical and ultimately reductionist accounts of the varieties of feminist approaches to just one feminism, guilty of the humanist trap of making a self-same, universal category of "women"-defined as other than menthe subject of feminism. At its worst, feminism has been seen as more punitively policing than mainstream culture" (1994, 105).

I don't 100% agree with everything in this article, but it's very provocative and makes some salient points.


I have thought of myself as bi since I was 15 (as you know, lol), and I'm ok with that. Queer might be more accurate, but I've always been hesitant to use it wrt myself for some reason.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

For the record I self identify as Queer, and try to avoid adding As Fuck in polite company.

[tree00faery.livejournal.com]

LOL! I've definitely said that before.

(Not stalking you or anything, I swear...)

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

Some people who would traditionally be called "bisexual" use the term to avoid the reinforcement of a binary gender dichotomy.

That would be me. Plus it differentiates me from the "Kinky chick who'll do girls to please dudes" thing that gets tied up with the word "bisexual".