When did "Queer" stop being a perjorative?

I noticed today that the campus LBGT (Lesbian Bi Gay Trans-gendered) Alliance has a new logo and a new name.
They're now the "Queer Resource Alliance" and they have the "Queer Resource center"...

How do Bi and TG folks feel about being called "Queer"?

I've got a problem with this. ever since I entered a work-world where you could expect to have "Sensitivity Training" and "Diversity Training"(beyond the farm and the burger joint), I've been told that "Queer" is a Bad Word. Rap stars shout out to their "N*****", but that's a Bad Word, and you have to "earn" the permission to use it.
Will it be the same way about "Queer"?

It's one of those words that gets stuck sideways in your mouth. I don't LIKE the word.

"We're Here!
We're Queer!
We're proud of it!
Get used to it!"

I don't think I would like to be called it if I were gay, but you know, like the "N" word sometimes the embracement of a slur by a shunned group provides a form of self-identity that helps one overcome the negative emotions and turn them into pride and self respect. Odd how that works.

On edit: I just realized that the word "gay" itself carries a strange tone as well, there's just no right way to single someone out without venturing into the negative aspect, I guess.

near...

by the group said term is meant for, is a way to rob it of it's power to hurt. It saps the dominant group of the power to hurt and control, if only for a word.

Yes, odd indeed that this tactic works.

I'm not Gay. So, I couldn't use the word "Queer" as a way of "owning" it because it was never mine to "own".

Seems like a hornet's nest to me...

OK, look at it this way:
I could call myself a "Breeder". Even have some yuks over it, shout out to all my crazee Breeder homeboys and homegirls, but how would I feel if a gay person called me a "Breeder", and not in a friendly way?

If a group wants to use a pejorative to self-identify "after hours" that's one thing, but to put it in their associaton name? I'm not comfortable with it. I feel like lines have been drawn, walls have been raised.

Next, they'll be changing the Black Cultural Center to the ....Oh, you get the idea....

Think of it like self-depracation. You can call yourself an idiot if you do something stupid, and that's ok. If your boss calls you an idiot, you'll proabbly be pretty pissed and insulted. Additionally, as others have stated, when a pejorative term is used against a group that group can then take the power out of the insult by accepting that word and using it proudly to describe themselves. Furthermore, have you ever tried to say "gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, questioning" several times in a speech? Yikes! "Queer" does a good job of summing up what we all have in common - a refusal to bend to the norms of heterosexual hegemony. The term is versatile and inclusive.

Lastly, and quite frankly, if you're uncomfortable with a minority group taking control of a pejorative term and using it publicly - tough luck. I'm not trying to be rude or mean, but if you're not a member of that group, it's not your business. By objecting to it you are in essence saying that they have no right to NOT be insulted by the word, and are thus trying to re-exert it's shaming power over them. If the "Black Cultural Center" wants to be the "N-word Cultural Center", it's not a white man's place to tell them they can't do it.

:hi:

"By objecting to it you are in essence saying that they have no right to NOT be insulted by the word, and are thus trying to re-exert it's shaming power over them. "

That is, without a doubt, the most CONVOLUTED thing i have read ina good long time.

No....No, what I'm saying is, you take a word that used to be an insult, one which countless people spent a LOT of energy trying to educate and "enlighten" other people into NOT using, and make it part of the official name of your organization, then what was the POINT?
You gonna go around "Uh, I know I got in your face and busted your chops for calling me 'Queer' last month, uh, umm, it's...Well, it's our official name now...Sorry...."

I'm not trying to "Shame" anyone, Transeo. You don't fuckin' KNOW me well enough to make THAT assessment, you understand what I'm saying here????

I ask an honest curious question, and you try to smack me with the homophobe brush.

Thanks a BUTTLOAD, pal!

and when the song "Yankee Doodle" came into being.

To take the british derogatory term and make it a source of pride.

'queer' is still considered offensive by many gays when uttered by a breeder like me.

There are a lot of terms which are considered OK when used by insiders, but offensive when used by outsiders.

Although, I do think 'queer' has mostly been robbed of its pejorative connotation.

There is actually some contraversy over this word. I for one don't find it offensive, I tend to find Faggot very offensive. There are those who do find this word very offensive and then there are those who are not offended by this word.

I believe they want to use "queer" as an all encompassing word, that includes gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgendered, and questioning. (I have only lately heard about the inclusiveness of questioning.)

Just my two cents...

"Gay" became just a hateful an epithet in the mouths of wingers as "faggot" ever was. And "queer" is more gender-neutral, thus not requiring "and lesbians." It also is broader and could include bis and transgendered people but I don't know how accepted it is in those quarters.

I prefer it, FWIW.

I also personally prefer it. Though I do understand how there could be those that are offended by it.

I am sincere in asking...is "Gay" now considered offensive? You prefer "Queer" to "Gay?"

I am just trying to educate myself on the changing times. Thanks so much in advance :hi:

...I think Gay and Lesbian are still OK words to use.

When you start to use queer, and yr straight, as I said below, it depends on yr relationship and involvment w. the gay community..particularly the more activist side of it.

He and all of his "queer" and "fag" signs. May he rotisserate over the great fire pit for an eternity.

as folk, Queer eye for a straight guy - have helped numb the masses to the word also. I personally don't care for the word, though i have used it as a term of endearment to my friends.

Both of these shows, unfortunately, just serve to propagte steroetypes...

The term was used to self identify by a biological female who does not identify exclusively with either gender. This particular person is in a relationship with a woman, but I don't think she identifies as a lesbian.

So there is a tremendous flux in usage of terms. I've heard my roomate, a gay man, call his friends fags all the time. It all depends on the intention.

Among my gay friends, it's not unusual for them to call one another a flaming nelly queen or a twink, and most of the women refer to themselves as dykes. Being essentially (although not exclusively) straight, I'm not comfortable most of the time using those terms myself. I'd be afraid someone would think I meant them insultingly. I tend to stick to "gay" and "lesbian" and avoid terms that have been used by vicious people.

MOST of the time. I have been known to refer to someone as a queen, but the person in question was without the slightest doubt one of the world's great flaming nellies, and prided himself on being a queen. Twink is borderline. Same with dyke.

in NYC.

Yes, I understand the reasoning behind using the word, as presented in several posts in this thread. But that doesn't mean that I would want to be called "queer'! It goes back to grade school, I think -- there was only one connotation for that word back then (c 1960) and it was NOT flattering!

I do not think of myself as 'queer', and neither do my heterosexual friends. At our brewpub neighborhood hangout, they check out the women, I check out the guys, and no one gives a rat's ass....

I like this quote from a famous Beat poet, c 1964: (paraphrasing here) "Sometimes I sleep with women, sometimes I sleep with men. Do not call me 'gay' or 'queer'... I am Alan Ginsburg and I sleep with anyone I fucking well please!"

to a certain degree. Also, it solves the "alphabet soup" problem. You know, the LGBTTxyzblahblah abreviations that EVERY queer group used to have. It also solves the prob of which orientation goes first, the L's, the G's or the B's (oh, and the new one, the T's)

That having been said...I'm not sure str8 folks should use that term unless the people they're talking to understand the context they're using it in.

This is a word used within the GBLT community....and pretty much by the more activist elements within the community, as sort of a catch-all term. It is about reclaiming a pejorative, yes, but this word is still pretty loaded for a large section of the gay/les world...particularly w. older folks.

And it would be odd and maybe offensive for straight folks to use it in reference to gays and lesbians. It would be safe to use gay and lesbian or transgendered, rather than queer, unless you are really involved w. the gay world, esp. the activist word, as an ally.

What do you do then? is the "unwritten rule" that "Well, we're the 'Queer Resource Alliance', unless you're straight, then you should call us 'The Association Formerly known as The LBGT Alliance'..."


Like I said in one of my earlier (misunderstood) postings, doesn't this throw up a wall between the gay and straight communities?

As we've already seen here, some people like the term and are "reclaiming" it, some hate it, some don't care, most don't think they'd like hearing straights call other folks "Queer", though.


One final thought: A couple of years ago, there was a huge stink on campus because some assholes had defaced flyers for the LBGT Alliance call-out by scrawling "QUEERS" on the posters. Police investigation, lots of hot ink in the campus rag, everything. Now that's all changed?
Maybe it is a good thing. I guess we'll see.

I am far from it.

There is not one mind about the use of these terms in the gay community. Some feel it's just jargon or common vernacular, others feel it is the community effacing itself.