Like, people who identify as Queer know the word is used like a slur. Trust me, we know.
So when we say āqueer is a slurā was started by terfs, maybe use some critical thinking and try to understand what we mean. That is, if you actually care about queer people and the damage terfs do, rather that just screaming āqueer is a slur!ā and ignoring the actual point.
Terfs did not like that queer was reclaimed. End of. This is a fact. Queer was too broad, too accepting, and embraced all the people they wanted gone. And I know y'all exclusionists feel the same but get pissed when we point it out so you deny it, but sit down and listen for a minute.
Queer was the preferred term for poc. For bisexuals. For trans people. For people with multiple identities. It neatly encapsulated everything, and was a friendly community to those who felt thrown under the bus by mainstream LGBT activism. It was a political and social statement, āyou treated my like I was different and weird, and guess what? I am and thatās something to be proud of.ā
So the response? āYou canāt use that word. Its bad. Its a slur.ā
And at the time, a lot of people rolled their eyes. Everyone knew why they didnāt like the word and brushed that off. It was fine.
So they started more subtly. āJust so you know this word is very harmful and is a slur so be careful how you use it :))) in case you didnāt know :)))) its a slur :))) friendly reminder :))) for the sake of other people of course :))))ā type shit on every post involving the word, including and especially posts simply mentioning self identification.
Always worded in friendly, concerned ways, like the derailment was meant to be nice and considerate, and not about normalizing their rhetoric.
And what happened because of that was a younger generation of community kids growing up with these statements being thrown at them and absorbed on every. Single. Post. That. Mentionioned. Queer.
The result? That same generation of kids cutting it all short, removing the meant-to-be-palatable niceness, to just say āqueer is a slur.ā
Exactly how it was originally intended. āQueer is a slur.ā People drop on posts where young queer people talk about it being a self identifier that actually fits them. āIts a slur,ā they comment, with nothing else, on posts they clearly didnāt read past that word, written by people twice their age who had reclaimed it before they were even born.
Its nasty. Its disgusting. Itās plain old bigotry, whether the people saying know it or not. It is a terf tactic, plain and simple.
And no one wants to deny that it is indeed used as a slur (right along with all the rest of our identities.) No one wants to be insensitive and force it on people who havenāt reclaimed it.
But invading queer peopleās posts to spit āqueer is a slurā is flat out queerphobic. You do the dirty work of terfs, of cis straight oppressors, by saying in one simple sentence: āits a dirty word, there is no pride in it, you havenāt/canāt reclaim(ed) it.ā
And regardless of your actual intentions, when you do this, that is EXACTLY what you are communicating and doing.
āQueer is a slurā is a terf movement. Stop fucking supporting terfs just because you want to pretend like it isnāt.
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