Queer is not a slur.
Queer is not a slur.
Queer is not a slur.
I’m not sure where you reside on this big blue ball of life that you don’t know this yet but queer is not a slur.
As a queer person. (Yes. I am a queer person. You seem to have not caught on to that for some reason or another.) I can tell you. That queer is not a slur.
I said this on Twitter and I’m saying it again here:
I have been on this planet long enough to know that queer used to be a slur, what it felt like to be called queer, and what it feels like now that queer has been taken back by the community. I use it proudly and freely and often. And I’m not the only one because
You want me to stop referring to “LGBT” (me, that’s me, once again, I’m in that group, despite your assumptions, God only knows why you’ve made these asinine assumptions) as queer but what about my friends who are pansexual? Asexual? Any other of the endless number of sexualities and identities that are not covered by:
Lesbian
Gay
Bisexual
Transgender
What about them? Should I just leave them out? Should everything I say about representation only apply to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender? Should I talk about intersectionality without making it clear that LGBT is obviously exclusive?
For this reason, I use the term LGBT only occasionally. And I DO use it when engaged in light-hearted conversation.
For this reason, I prefer to use the word queer.
Because I’m thinking about my friends and I’m thinking about what it took to get that word, queer, the one word that says it all, back from the people whose only purpose in life is to bring us down.
Everyday I use the word queer so that people who think it is a slur, people like you, will know better.
I say it out loud. It makes phobic people uncomfortable. I SAY IT LOUDER. And I will repeat myself if I have to.
I am gay. I am queer. I am a part of the queer community. I use the word proudly and happily. And until some other word comes along that fits us all, that won’t be or hasn’t been fucked over by bigotry and hate and ignorance, I will continue using the word queer for both my friends and myself.