There is one word that drives me nuts. It's not a curse. Its timbre does not make me cringe. Rather, it is the way in which this particular word is used—often to describe me, and others like me, totally against my will — that I find to be so offensive.
The word, if you have not guessed it by now, is “queer.” Now I use the word for my blog. I am so proud to use it and be a queer GAM (gay asian man)
I do not mind the proper literary usage of the word, defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “strange, odd, peculiar, eccentric, in appearance or character. Also, of questionable character, suspicious, dubious.” I have a problem when gay activists and certain academics use the word in an affirming sense to describe gay people. There is certainly nothing “strange, odd or peculiar” about homosexuality, which has existed, arguably, for nearly as long as human history itself.
Queer. Gam. QueerGam. The use of these words abound. At Yale alone there is QPAC: the Queer Political Action Committee. The Yale LGBT Co-Op's e-mail list regularly solicits submissions for “Queer,” the “only undergraduate literary and cultural journal related to queerness.” The Co-op has also initiated a program, “Queer Peers,” to help questioning students by matching them up with an openly gay mentor.
What is a non-queer gay person to do?
Those who popularize the word queer—that is, gay leftists and some gay academics—will not let gay people escape from their queer clutches. Simply by being gay, you are a “queer” whether you like it or not, as its practical use implicates all gay people. When a gay activist or academic speaks of the “queer community” or “queer rights,” he, ipso facto, has labeled me a “queer,” regardless of whether or not I accept the label.
The word, if you have not guessed it by now, is “queer.” Now I use the word for my blog. I am so proud to use it and be a queer GAM (gay asian man)
I do not mind the proper literary usage of the word, defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “strange, odd, peculiar, eccentric, in appearance or character. Also, of questionable character, suspicious, dubious.” I have a problem when gay activists and certain academics use the word in an affirming sense to describe gay people. There is certainly nothing “strange, odd or peculiar” about homosexuality, which has existed, arguably, for nearly as long as human history itself.
Queer. Gam. QueerGam. The use of these words abound. At Yale alone there is QPAC: the Queer Political Action Committee. The Yale LGBT Co-Op's e-mail list regularly solicits submissions for “Queer,” the “only undergraduate literary and cultural journal related to queerness.” The Co-op has also initiated a program, “Queer Peers,” to help questioning students by matching them up with an openly gay mentor.
What is a non-queer gay person to do?
Those who popularize the word queer—that is, gay leftists and some gay academics—will not let gay people escape from their queer clutches. Simply by being gay, you are a “queer” whether you like it or not, as its practical use implicates all gay people. When a gay activist or academic speaks of the “queer community” or “queer rights,” he, ipso facto, has labeled me a “queer,” regardless of whether or not I accept the label.