Why Queer? Why Now?
"Queer" is a hard thing to define. And that is a good thing. Let's start with the dictionary definition:
Queer (adj.)
- Deviating from the normal, strange.
- Odd or unconventional, as in behaviour; eccentric.
- Of a questionable nature or character; suspicious.
source: The American Heritage Dictionary, 5th ed.
It's interesting that the dictionary here has no definition for reclaiming the word "queer". At least, it's not shown within the Google search page for "queer definition." On the website, the American Heritage Dictionary lists these additions:
Queer (n.)
- A lesbian, gay male, bisexual, or transgender person.
It also lists a usage note:
A reclaimed word is a word that was formerly used solely as a slur but that has semantically overturned by members of the maligned group, who use it as a term of defiant pride. Queer is an example of a word undergoing this process. For decades, queer was used as a derogatory adjective for gays and lesbians, but in the 1980s the term began to be used by gay and lesbian activists as a term of self-identification. Eventually, it came to be used as an umbrella term that included gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender people. Nevertheless, a sizeable percentage of people to whom this term might apply still hold queer to be a hateful insult, and its use by heterosexuals is often considered offensive. Similarly, other reclaimed words are usually offensive to the in-group when used by outsiders, so caution must be taken with their use when one is not a member of the group.
That provides a little bit more context, as well as a jumping off point for analysis. Firstly, there is clearly no room for much nuance on the Google search page, but whether that has malicious intent or not remains to be verified. Secondly, the word itself has been reclaimed, yes, for some people in the community. It really depends on whom is the one saying it, and who they are saying it to.
If you are here, dear reader, think about how the word queer makes you feel in this tender year of 2025. Has it been used as an insult against you? Is it the worst thing you've ever heard to describe you as a person? Do you instead find it liberating? Warm, as if it were a big hoodie that you can sink into?
Have you heard worse words slung at you to describe you as a person?
To reveal my personal bias, the editor of this website (and this blog) is extremely pro-queer, including some definitions of the word that are not included above. I do find it liberating. It has been used as an insult against me. I have heard worse things used to insult me and dehumanize me. Despite that, I have, personally, reclaimed "queer." That does not mean that you have to do the same.
However, with the onset of media censorship, purity culture, and literal fascism, it's important to embrace two things, and I will explain them both in as much detail as I possibly can in one blog post. The first thing is that you must embrace allowing people to define themselves. You will not always understand or be comfortable with that definition, or labels, or identities that someone uses; but you must embrace them and respect them. The second thing is that you must embrace cultural queerness. Cultural queerness, unfortunately, is even harder to define than "queer." This is not an academic paper, but I will attempt to paint you a picture.
Cultural queerness does not necessarily mean that one identifies as queer, nor does it mean that they identify as being in the gender or sexually diverse (unless of course, you take into account a culturally specific term such as two-spirit - which is its own blog post.) Cultural queerness requires you to have empathy for any group that society has capital-O Othered. Being gay is one thing, it's what you prefer sexually and what you might do in the bedroom, and whom you might be attracted to.
Being culturally queer is not shitting on the person who might be doing sex work (whether they enjoy the work, or they are doing the work to survive, or any other reason) without having an odd moral hangup about it. Being culturally queer is not shitting on the people who use it/its or neopronouns. Being culturally queer is not shitting on people who are a different race, ethnicity, or religion from you. Being culturally queer is not wanting to ban porn, or to keep kink out of your Pride parade. Being culturally queer is not typing out your manifesto for how we should remove the B and the T from the acronym. Being culturally queer is not falling down the alt-right pipeline because you liked a few too many radfem and tradwife posts on social media. Being culturally queer is not shitting on the person who is mute, or uses a wheelchair, or has a cognitive disability, or has a chronic illness. Being culturally queer is not shitting on the person in your friend group who is intersex, or asking them rude, invasive questions about their body. Being culturally queer is realizing that your "women and non-binary" event is fucking reductive and assumes all non-binary genders are simply "Woman-lite," while on the back end excludes everyone who was assigned male at birth or coercively assigned male at birth.
Do you kind of understand what I'm saying? Queer isn't just an identity, or a slur, or an umbrella term for a group of same-gender attracted people, it's a sociological positioning and an epistemology within your community and wider society. Quickly, let's define epistemology for you:
Epistemology (n.)
- The branch of philosophy that examines the nature of knowledge, its presuppositions and foundations, and its extent and validity.
That is the philosophy definition. In sociological language, it is simply "a way of knowing," which is by way of first hand experience. Epistemology is the basis for position feminism (which is its own can of worms), and what the line is that we consider "legitimate knowledge." All of that to say, epistemology in practice is listening to someone with a different human experience to you speak, and attempting to take a walk in their shoes. That's what I can give you without getting into a sociological debate about empirical versus subjective knowledge. Sometimes people know more than what statistics say, and sometimes they know less. It's fine.
The point, if we can get to it, is that queerness, whether it be an umbrella term, a singular sexual or romantic identity, a gender, a praxis, a politic, an epistemology, must be allowed to proliferate. Governments around the world have consistently launched attacks to undermine the rights of indigenous, colonized, and racialized people, disabled people, women (whether trans or cis), people who have uteruses, and queer (colloquial) and intersex people. People who may not share any of these identities but are visibly "weird" in public are also being called into question - and it's not necessarily by government(s), but peers. Purity culture and cultural Christianity continues to be the ideal, or the status quo. Any piece of media arguing against that status quo is in the process of being banned, or has already been banned. Look at Twitter, and its culture now versus the 2010s. Look at Facebook and the Meta-verse not-so-quietly removing protections against hate speech. Look at the people around you actively treating one another like shit just for existing. Look at the top 1% throwing money behind a genocide.
The work we do here is actively against the status quo, and ultimately (and arguably more importantly), is, for the lack of a better term: "pro-weird." It's up to you if you'd like to unlearn shame, and learn to embrace queerness. Even if you take a while to decide, we'll still be here.