What does Queer mean?

[Irish Queer]

I use it for its original meaning as I see myself as odd and weird and someone who doesn't fit however, I apply this to me as a person in general and not because I'm gay. I think us as a community taking it and using it specifically for our community then excludes others who just don't fit into how and this includes LGBT+ people view society etc. I hope this made sense.

 

[72-Jay]

To my knowledge, the Q stands for "questioning."

I have seen it both ways.. as Questioning or as Queer

calling someone "queer" equalled calling them "faggot"

This exactly.
I dislike the word..probably because of that older meaning.

 

[EJMichaels]

...Trans isn't a sexual preference it's a gender identity. Transpeople are either straight, gay, bisexual or asexual, and asexual is only a sexual identity in the way that atheism is a reiigon.

While technically true, this isn't about scientifically correct categories -- it's about sexual minorities in a social/political sense.

....LGB covers the lot But these days everyone seems to like to think that they are special in some way.

There's some truth in that, but I also think LGB categories don't allow for people who don't fit neatly into them. I'd rather have some functional umbrella terms than a lot of "special" terms that apply to very few people and confuse the rest.

I like one definition of queer I saw on Wikipedia -- an umbrella term for sexual and gender minorities that are not heterosexual or cisgender. It’s more complicated than that, and has different meanings in different contexts, but I think that’s about right for the orientation category (politics, etc. aside).

Personally, I like it because I’m not technically gay/lesbian (I’m female, btw) – a Kinsey 5 -- and I don’t especially like “bisexual” (long story) even though I suppose it’s correct.

 

[Harke the Boeotarch]

The origin of the word queer is interesting. From the Online Etymology Dictionary.



The assumed PIE *terkw- is also the origin of thwart, torque, tort (also contort, distort, etc.) but not, apparently, twerk.

"Durchqueren" in modern High German means "to cross" (such as crossing the ocean). "Queer" suggests it being more or less perpendicular to existing societal norms.

'Queer' in 2022, in The Netherlands, after homosexual marriage, seems tedious and presumptuous, a bit like the accountant in the Monty Python Vocational Guidance Counselor sketch who wanted to be a lion tamer...

 

[NotHardUp1]

The whole LGBTACDEFHIJKMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ+ thing is utter bollocks as far as I am concerned.

Trans isn't a sexual preference it's a gender identity. Transpeople are either straight, gay, bisexual or asexual, and asexual is only a sexual identity in the way that atheism is a reiigon.

LGB covers the lot But these days everyone seems to like to think that they are special in some way.

I've seen LGBTQIA2S+ and LGBTQQIP2SAA used. In the latter case, the Qs apparently stand for Queer and Questioning. All complete nonsense in my view.

If the coalition is represented as a redox equation, it ceases to be meaningful or useful as a term.

Why are non-"Queer" people allowed to use it and how is it inclusive when they know a lot of older LGBT people find it traumatizing?

How can "allow" be a thing when it comes to language?

We can disgree with someone else's use of all sorts of terms, but we are not in a position to disallow another's speech.

It's use is a premise for dialogue and meaning and contrasting views.

And if we become social censors of thought or speech, we become the very thing we despised as a minority ourselves, the arbiters of acceptability, not based upon actual harm or oppression, but based upon someone's sensitivity or feelings.

 

[Essex Boy]

Today's Daily Mail is on the case. The A-Z of the utterly baffling world of modern sexuality: From Autoromantic to Zygosexual (otherwise known as a swinger), CLAUDIA CONNELL navigates the choppy waters of contemporary language

Queer
Originally used as an unpleasant slur against homosexual people, the term has now been reclaimed. Today to be ‘queer’ means that you are non-conforming and reject labels and traditional definitions of sexuality. A straight person can be ‘queer’.

But that's not the only Q out there ...

Quadsexual
As the name might suggest, this person is attracted to four different genders at any one time. They come under the ‘multisexual’ spectrum but the four genders they are attracted to can change, meaning their quadsexuality is ‘fluid’. What happens if said quadsexual suddenly finds themselves attracted to five genders? No problem, they just upgrade to a quintsexual.

They walk among us!

 

[cabinfever]

I think there should be an H in the string of letters - I identify as a homosexual - where is my fucking letter?

 

[Essex Boy]

I'm a BAWGOB. Bisexual Above the Waist, Gay Only Below.

 

[Sebazz]

 

[eddielee]

Well, I am not queer, I'm gay. That's the best answer I can give.

 

[rareboy]

I think there should be an H in the string of letters - I identify as a homosexual - where is my fucking letter?

This.

I have called myself a homo since I was 18. I am not 'gay' or anything other than a homo. But I am all for people labelling themselves any fucking thing they want to if they feel validated and empowered by it.

 

[Riverrick]

I don't like it either. Its annoying to read an article about someone who is clearly a gay man and he's referred to over and over again as queer. Never once do they say gay.

Gay is the lingo that I used when I came out. Its the lingo that I use to identify other like minded men, bars, campgrounds, resorts, etc. Its part of my identity at this point. Queer is a homophobic insult and I just cannot see it being successfully adopted to empower us and represent us.

 

[Zeno Lorea]

Queer is a slur used against gays and lesbians and despised by most gays and lesbians for that reason.
But some people, most of them straight, have appropriated the term as an excuse to intrude into the LGB community.

 

[bankside]

It’s had 4 lives at least:

• The general word for peculiar, nothing to do with sexual orientation
• then that turned into a way of accusing someone of being gay, i.e., “not quite right” There’s something wrong with that man! He’s queer! And so it was an insult for “homosexual male”. Probably from the Second World War to the 1980’s.
• then as the AIDS crisis hit, and lots of western governments ignored it because it was “only gays and Haitians so who cares?” and so lots of activists were angry. To them “queerness” meant a politicized angry homosexual willing to be the worst nightmare of any government that would deny our rights and let us die with no effort to help. “Queer” wasn’t a sexual orientatio, it meant “angry political homosexual.”
• then as the 80’s came to an end, governments started doing something about HIV, and we started making progress on equality & human rights. “Angry protesting homosexual“ was yesterday’s activism and my generation was over it. For us we were coming for the suburbs. Marriage. Every corporate boardroom. No where was safe from our agenda, we wanted everything. And as we went about our mad plans to be equal everywhere, we weren’t doing angry chants or ”die-ins”, we were about bridge-building, behind the scenes meetings, court cases. And nobody was using “queer” much any more. It didn’t mean “angry homosexual” because there weren’t that many. So it got its 4th life: a sexual orientation. By the late 90’s, queer meant “etc.”, the edge cases, people who weren’t quite straight, weren’t quite gay, weren’t quite bi either. The ”Check other and fill in the blank” of sexual orientation
• *i suppose there is a 5th definition, where people now try to retcon all the 90’s queers into gay, bi, or straight, stuffing people into some category by stretching it out of its original definition because “gatekeeping is bad” (words should mean whatever we feel like today) and “identifying as” something, whatever you pick, is way more important than being yourself. Lots of people resist that usage though. But that’s the history.

 

[bankside]

I don't like it either. Its annoying to read an article about someone who is clearly a gay man and he's referred to over and over again as queer. Never once do they say gay.

what’s even worse is an article that’s like “This week Jason Williams became the first LGBTQ+ man to cross the Atlantic in a sailboat…” or whatever and I’m like “So Jason is a Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer man? Plus??

 

[Charon]

EC wouldn't approve of this thread, prob something along the lines of "it dismisses people who identify as queer."

 

[Peloso]

This.

I have called myself a homo since I was 18. I am not 'gay' or anything other than a homo. But I am all for people labelling themselves any fucking thing they want to if they feel validated and empowered by it.

I always liked homo too. The word 'gay' made me think of showtunes and fruity bar drinks with little umbrellas in them.

Several times when coming out to someone I would say "Guess what I'm a fag." Beats them to the punch.

 

[TheLoveableLoner]

I've always interpreted it as an umbrella term for the entire community. If you're not a cis straight person, it fits. Obviously, there are subgroups (gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, etc.), But I've always seen Queer as a way to group us all. I've never seen calling yourself queer as a bid for eccentricity or the like, just boldly saying “Hey, I ain't straight!”

I definitely understand why it might be used to folks whose sexuality and gender identity have a way wider spectrum than most. I also understand why some are hesitant with it. I definitely consider myself queer though. And gay. And a myriad of other fun things.

 

[rareboy]

I always liked homo too. The word 'gay' made me think of showtunes and fruity bar drinks with little umbrellas in them.

Several times when coming out to someone I would say "Guess what I'm a fag." Beats them to the punch.

ANd that is why we are Bos in souls.

 

[ShadowCat]

One of these things is not like the other