What Does “Queer” Mean?
What does queer mean? Who “counts” as queer? Who can say the word "queer?" These are questions that people have asked me for years. These days, I sometimes feel that people are afraid to ask so here are my thoughts.
Yes, you can say queer even if you don't identify as queer. You don't have to be a member of the LGBTQIA2S+ community to be queer; same gender loving folx are sometimes the least queer folx in the room. (Yes, I said it!) Poly and kinky people are queer. Yes, asexual or ace individuals are queer.
These aren’t universally accepted positions in the LGBTQIA2S+ community; they are my positions. The perspectives I’m sharing in this post are grounded in my personal experience as well decades of experience as a queer studies researcher and professor.
The concept of queer calls into question the ways social norms enforce inequalities and oppress people on the margins. Queer….
🌈Is not a synonym for “gay” or “lesbian.”
🌈Makes some people uncomfortable. That’s the point. It takes our “shameful” histories and reclaims them as a badge of pride.
🌈Decenters cisheteronormativity because it shows how the norm requires the anti-normative to define itself.
🌈Cannot be reduced to a single meaning.
🌈Critiques those who would confine the complexity and fluidity of sexuality and gender to fixed or inherent identities: gay, straight, man, woman, etc.
I’ve always been a fan of the term because I believe that our attachment to normative identities is a form of social control for people of all sexualities and genders.
The word queer has a long history, going back centuries, although it wasn’t commonly used until the beginning of the 18th century. (No, that’s not a typo) In the 1990s, it was reclaimed by grassroots activists as an act of defiance and resistance to heteronormativity (and homonormativity), adopted by queer scholars like me, and began to move into mainstream culture, most famously in the series Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.
There are problems with the term queer and its politics. The capaciousness of queer is part of its appeal but also its weakness. As a signifier of community and an umbrella category, it can imply a unity that’s homogenizing. We must always remember that LGBTQIA2S+ folx are people of diverse races, ethnicities, genders, classes, abilities, etc. The silences around race and racism remain persistent problems in queer and trans communities. If queer is to live up to its radical potential, it must be a tool for amplifying and elevating, not erasing, difference.
#pride #queer #deib #language
Image source: https://mashable.com/article/what-does-queer-mean
