Best Posts in Thread: I'm Not a F**king Queer

The thing about sexual orientation and identity is that it's a fairly recent invention. Until recently, being LGBT wasn't an identity label nor did it describe what you were. In fact, there likely wasn't a word for it. It was just something you did. You were a man who liked to sleep with man. Or you were someone who was thought to be a male at birth, but later began to live your life as a female. These were just actions, not identities. The concept of "being gay" didn't come about until much later.

With that said, I imagine that there was a lot of discomfort when the word "gay" was used to describe homosexual activity. And although many men still choose to identify as SGL, many men of color including myself still feel comfortable using "gay." So to me, this backlash against the term queer doesn't feel all that different from when people first started using the term gay.

I personally don't identify as queer but I have used it as an umbrella term to identify sexual and gender minorities simply because it's an umbrella term and a lot easier to type out than the alphabet soup of "LGBTQQIAAPSzvdjamHcnd." And I think a lot of people are misunderstanding its usage. They're not saying every one identifies as queer when they name a section "queer." They're simply using it as an inclusive term for all sexual and gender minorities. People within it can identify as gay, bi, SGL, trans, or just simply a person who likes what they like without a particular label. It's kinda like the use of the term "people of color." It's usually used to discuss people in the context of white supremacy as an umbrella term for non-whites.

And yes, some people do identify as queer. That's fine. That's probably the best label to describe them. Sexuality is complicated and maybe they don't feel like any of the other labels apply.

In conclusion, nobody is forcing you to identify as queer or anything else for that matter. It's just an umbrella term that CAN be used as an identity label.

 

I guess I am the odd man out here. I don't necessarily see a problem with queer per se. I mean, as noted, the term queer is supposed to be more inclusive capture the wide gambit of LGBTQIA (or whatever the acronym is today).

I don't ever use to term queer referring to myself as a gay man but I am not offended by the term either. I think like any other identity politic everyone is going to have their own frame of reference and preference. I know a lot of white gay men who also hate the term queer but I also so some men whose sexual orientation identity is extremely fluid and they don't necessarily identify with the term gay or bisexual either. I say to each its own.

I also think the term really made a resurgence in the late 70s and 80s and really rebounded lately with the rise of Queer Theory Academic Scholarship.

I mean we all know that one gay guy, black, white, and other, who got their undergraduate degree in gender and sexuality studies, went back and got their masters in Queer Studies, and now is working on finish their dissertation on the intersection of male bonding while rejecting the traditional gay stereotypes, commonly known as 'Bromance'. You know that guy, soon to be Dr. Cornelius Duvall Winston, Jr. <----I made that name up because these guys have names like that.

 

Nah. I don't connect with that. And I understand that there's a long history of white gay folks taking liberties and steering that identity ship for the rest of us. I rebuff that completely. I know that there are folks of color that connect with that term, but I don't. I don't know how inclusive of all the other letters in that funny little acronym it is. Mostly because I'm a proponent of folks living in the moment we're in sociopolitically and seizing the agency to define themselves. Maybe this goes hand in glove with some folks. But not for me. I'm comfortable with bisexual. Queer just comes off too broad and all encompassing.