From birdsite
RT @AmyZenunim
i'm sorry but i still find it incredibly depressing that "queer" as a word has been deemed Unspeakable, considering ten years ago i would go to the queer support group with my genderqueer friends, went to Queer Studies class, and it was colloquial to substitute "gay" for "queer"
re: From birdsite
@catgoat Okay, it's time I said something about this.
First off.. Ten years ago it was ALSO acceptable to call everything and everyone the R-word. Eventually, the autistic community started speaking up and saying, "Hey, please stop using that word so casually; it's a slur that degrades and alienates us" There were also people who complained about censorship then, because they had such fond memories of calling things the R-word with their friends or whatever, but MOST people agreed that holding on to the slang they were accustomed to wasn't worth hurting autistic people.
This issue is not very different. Ten years ago or whatever, younger / newer members of the LGBT community started calling everything "Queer" as slang, because they had no context for the word beyond how their LGBT peers used it. Or maybe because they just wanted to be edgy and use it the way rappers use the N-word?
[continued]
re: From birdsite
@CrashFu This is 20, 25, 30 years we have been using this as a community -- even, yes, while people were using it as a slur against us. It *is* our word, and that would be the biggest difference between your hard-r and the autistic community comparison. This isn't about people calling things queer as an insult, this is about us, queer people and the lgbtq community, using a word we have been using for decades to identify ourselves and reclaim. Efforts to reclaim and use this word started before I was even born. The narrative that "younger" members of the LGBTQ community had no context 10 years ago or that this word even started to be used ten years ago drives me up the wall.
If you don't want to be called queer or use that as part of your identity, that is ok and your prerogative, but this is a word I use to identify myself and a word that was used against myself and others extensively and we have reclaimed as our own for decades.
re: From birdsite
@catgoat If you want to call yourself "Queer" the way rappers refer to themselves as the N-word, that's one thing. (Although one could argue that if you REALLY wanted to respect the people hurt by that word, you'd switch to a less-offensive equivalent anyways)
But there's a huge difference between calling YOURSELF a degrading term to "reclaim" it, and using that term on other people, or encouraging cis-hets to use the word in ANY context.
Things went too far when people started adding "Q" to LGBT, especially when an 'N' or a '+' would work just as well and not hurt anybody. Things went too far when people started using ( and encouraging cis-hets to use) "Queer" as a blanket-term for LGBT. Things went too far when folks started using the word FLIPPANTLY, with no regard for how uncomfortable it makes the people who were personally victimized by that word.
Trying to make a harmful word become casual slang for everybody to use ISN'T "reclaiming" it.
re: From birdsite
@CrashFu @catgoat This is more of a response to your continuation post, which Awoo hasn't loaded yet for some reason.
You keep trying to pretend this is a new thing, and it makes it hard to think you're arguing in good faith. Reclaiming queer is not new, and a large majority of the people who use it *have* been bashed with it. Unless you're trying to say ACT UP and company were somehow anti-LGBT groups in disguise, to give just one example. You weren't afraid when the trend started. You didn't even exist yet. You were in diapers when the slogan "We're here, we're queer, get used to it" became trendy.
"Gay" is also a slur, and one that was thrown at me quite a lot more than queer ever was. But here you have no objection to L*G*BT. Why?
re: From birdsite
@Doephin @CrashFu I agree re: history, but on the other hand, I don't want to invalidate their experiences with that word, I can totally see how even recent experiences with allo-cis-het people can sour someone on the word queer, since I know my personal negative experiences w/it were combined with physical violence (or gay, as you've pointed out, which was what everyone moved to in the early 2000s once queer wasn't as fun for them, I guess?)