To me, "queer" means so much more than simply "LGBTQ+". It also carries with it the radical legacy of our history in a way that a word like "gay" just never could for me.

I'm not just gay. I'm queer, because I refuse to fit in, I refuse to conform, and I will fight oppression.

I don't think "gay" is a bad word. It's just too narrow for me, it doesn't leave room for my genderqueerness, and it's not radical enough. Plus, if I'm being honest, because this is the kind of queer I am: It's just not nearly as stylish, sexy and cool as "queer" is to me.

It represents a refusal to play by society's rules in the face of massive intersectional oppression, which is a whole lotta meaning packed into just five letters.

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