How do we feel about the word “queer” in 2023?

I'm sure you are well-intentioned, but the same people that hate 'queer' will still hate it, and the same people that hate the people that hate 'queer' will still hate the people that hate 'queer.'

I hate r1.

I've said this before, but "queer" is now a cultural term like "hippie" or "punk" or "redneck" - it refers to a group of people who share the same cultural values, tastes, fashions, etc. It has nothing to do with sexual orientation and we should resist the idea that it does. Gays and lesbians should feel free to call themselves gay or lesbian instead of being forced into a cultural community they don't like or want to be part of.

Just to clear up any confusion, gay is NOT queer.

THIS is queer. 👇🤮

Oh, why are you so weird, boy?

Johnny, are you queer, boy?

What R1 and R3 typed is the correct answer.

In 2022, the word was offensive to me, and in 2023, it still is.

I was all ready to like a certain Netflix show based on a graphic novel and with multiple threads here on DL. Then this "q" word kept getting used to describe it, the actors, fashion, etc. I used the "f" word: Fuck it.

I have reclaimed the words queer and faggot.

Good for you, r8. You may keep them.

I fucking hate it with a passion

Eldergay bitching thread

I don't mind it, but I do mind being told that THIS IS THE WORD WE'RE ALL USING NOW.

I doesn't really bother me, mostly because it has absolutely nothing to do with me.

I'm not queer. Nor am I a member of the "queer community." I'm gay. That's it.

I went to an exhibit last night by two historians and for every time frame they used the word queer. Queer history, queer princes, queer robber barons, queer mandarins, Cossacks, popes, weavers, painters, Vikings, and on and on. It was exhausting.

God this again. Again!

The one thing I will say is that almost every term for gay people was at some point derogatory or a pejorative..when I was growing up ‘gay’ was used far more frequently than ‘queer’ as a slur. Should I request that you obsessives stop using gay to describe yourselves?

Obviously I wouldn’t and that would be insane. Now consider how you sound bitching and moaning about people using ‘queer’.

No.

R6 You are a divorced bisexual and partly to blame for why "gay" has been completely colonized.

It was odd when Ariana De Bose kept winning awards and proclaiming herself queer. It was like why not gay or lesbian? Queer made me think any minute now she'll be dating a guy.

Once again R17-OP (or whatever personality you are currently channeling) you are wrong. I was never bisexual or used bisexuality as an excuse for fucking men. I was always GAY; I knew I liked men. I figured that out when I was 8yrs old at the Falls of Schuylkill Library in East Falls on Warden Drive.

I fucking hate the word. I am not "Queer".

And I hate that people try to use it as a blanket term that includes gay men. I'm homosexual. I'm gay. I'm not queer.

And I [italic]REALLY[/italic] hate that straight men and straight women use it to describe themselves because the men decide they want to wear nail polish, or the women want to have a butch haircut. Bleh.

The word is fucking MEANINGLESS.

former actress Beanie Feldstein identifies as queer (but she fits the chubby profile now doesn't she)

Amen R20 .

I dont really hate it. Language changes over time, and i can appreciate that.

Myself, I feel kinda silly calling myself queer, as a 60-yr old gay man. But if the young’uns like it …

This is for post 11:

🖕

Maybe a regional thing, queer is totally inoffensive, I'm a lot more offended at sissy, fudge packer, shirt lifter, nancy boy, uphill gardener or the more casual "you fucking homo" if truth be told.

I’m gay, not queer. But if you’re queer, you do you.

I dislike the word HOMOSEXUAL even more that queer.

R27 ok Owen Jones

The word 'queer' is ugly, harmful, hurtful and weird. The word 'queer' should be buried in the ash heap of history.

OP- We're HERE

We're QUEER

Get used to it!

In my day we called them Bohemians.

Queer is absolutely offensive to me. It's telling me I'm wrong, broken, off, not right, and need to be fixed. That's what the fucking word means.

People not offended by "Queer" obviously never heard of (or were forced to play) the game "Smear the Queer"...

I am both black and gay. I have never liked the term African-American and try to avoid using it, but I accept that it's "the term" and just roll with it. It's the same thing for queer. I don't like it, I don't use it, but it's "the term" now and I'm not going to lose any sleep or get offended if someone calls me that.

Anyone who calls me "Queer" is going to get a fist to the face.

Don't you fucking dare.

R34 lol sure.

I despise the word, OP.

Its connotations will forever signal homophobia for me.

If other gay people call me queer, I can deal with that, I just shrug my shoulders but I'm not going to police their language.

What annoys me is that the very vocal queer activist types have convinced straight people (like news organizations) that queer is the term gays and lesbians prefer. This is driving me crazy. Activists who presume to speak on my behalf are creeps.

This ongoing never ending battles as. far as how people self label is a lot more important than most sane people might think.

MANY years ago (sigh, yes I am a very elder gay) when I was in my mid-30’s, a straight ( honestly) highschooler told me that he “has many queer friends, and some of them are gay”).

R3 nailed it.

Queer is a mostly meaningless term that seems to include most of the far left or progressive crowd. It's harmless, but very annoying when the larger public assumes it still means "gay".

I do find it quite irritating when, say a woman, someone calls herself "queer" and expects the gay population to include her as one of their own, along with her male husband and three kids of course.

^^screwed up that post. Sorry for the errors^^

Matt Baume seems to use the word interchangeably with gay. He's definitely an out gay male who identifies as a male.

Use of "queer" bothered me. It seems like someone wants to be out of the closet, but not fully out.

Yet, I like Matt's videos (dissecting gay characters in vintage pop culture). So, I will give him grace and just chalk it up to a younger person's vernacular.

I've gone from claiming "We're here, we're queer" in protest to seeing and hearing "queer" as a pejorative along with "faggot" (which had a brief moment, pro and con, as well) to now its use to describe a lifestyle, attitude or presentation: something that has nothing to do with what the word has meant to me in my life.

If someone else wants to ID that way to me and the world, god bless 'em. Nobody owns the word, and meanings and usage change. I suspect, like most things, it's current use will fade and/or morph into something else. Language evolves and changes.

I hate the word. I'm in my mid 50s, I heard it way too many times for most of the years and now a word that's suppose to be taken back by the LGB whatever community is used by bored or confused teenagers to describe they're edgy and part of a fad. It's an awful word and the people that use queer as their main "label" are attention whores.

R42 that's the ONLY thing I don't like about Matt's videos. Everything else he does is golden, but I avoid his channel because of his obsession with using the word every other sentence.

I'm a gay man. I'm gay. That's it.

Oh, and don't get me started on the folks that identify as "LGBTQ+" because biologically you can't be all of those letters and we sure as shit aren't one big happy community.

R19 You've shared your little story over and over and over again. Married to a frau for many years, dropped a bunch of crotch fruit, but oh you were always 100000% gay and you've come here to remind us all for the millionth time. It's gotten really boring.

Bisexuality is a spectrum and that's where you fall. It's not an "excuse" - it's just a fact. This total disregard for reality is what has given rise to all this queer nonsense.

You keep bringing it up and I always correct you!! The only Spectrum I was ever in was the stadium in South Philly, which hosted the Flyers& the 76ers in the 1970's & 80's. Great times!!

How about you live in your Spectrum, and I'll live in the" so-called real world"? Okay OP!

R47 Meds. Now.

You and Halle do need your meds!

R49 Is this "Halle" person in the room with us right now?

Maybe in your mind she is! Just you and Schizo Halle Berry OP!! Take ur meds, please.

I'm watching Svengoolie...It's Abbott& Costello meets Frankenstein while drinking Finnish Vodka. It's the La Jolla Saturday night festival with a film. The original "Dinner and a movie"

"Queer" is ubiquitous in show biz.

Most casting directors are straight, white, Jewish women liberals and they are FUCKING GUNG HO pushing, shaping and demanding we all fall in line to pronouns, "LGBTQIA+", and the whole Gender Identity Movement vocabulary, which includes a ton of "Queer", which they've been taught (by whom?) is the ONLY correct way to refer to a gay person!

The words " queer, fag, etc." used to enrage me when I was young, now, I have mixed feelings about it. Nowadays, we have straight people with pastel hair claiming to be "queer, that have never had gay or lesbian sex in their lives. The British term "poof " is adorable, puts me in mind of elves dancing in a field of wildflowers.

R51 Scrap the meds. A full lobotomy is in order.

Is the big gay bear still around, or did he finally drown in his kayak? I figured he’d chime in on this one.

How can "Queer" be a "blanket term" for LGBTQ+ people WHEN THE Q IS RIGHT IN THERE?

Honestly, I have no idea why the Q is in there. Please, someone, tell me how someone is "Queer" without ALSO being one of the other letters in that alphabet soup? It's so redundant and ridiculous.

The Q-word has ALWAYS been a derogatory epithet, and I see no reason to try and "reclaim" it. WTF people. Have some self respect.

R56 girl ‘gay’ has always been used as a derogatory word too, much more in my experience than queer has.

Queer to me is more about cultural output. Film/ music / literature. Anything made by an LGBT+ person. You gals need to grow up and stop letting small stuff like this bother you so much.

Oh, in YOUR experience. WELL then. I guess that settles everything. Even though the opposite is true in MY experience.

Gay as never been a derogatory epithet in my experience. There was a decade or so when stupid kids went around saying "that's so gay", but big deal. That is HARDLY as bad as the word "Queer" was.

Queer is saying someone is messed up, wrong, needs fixing, broken, incorrect, and bad. Gay has never meant any of those things.

You need to grow up and stop trying to make Queer into something it's not. It's NOT a blanket term for LGBT+ people or their work. Stop it. Let the word fucking DIE already. PLEASE. It's awful.

R57 "queer" has nothing to do with cultural output other than it's used by artists that got a nose piercing and their tits colored blue and labeled themselves queer, scribbled on a piece of paper, and called it "queer art". Shut the fuck up,

I don't use it because I'm old; it's just not part of my lexicon. But I understand what younger people mean when they use it and it doesn't bother me.

Probably 80% of white women in their 20s today are "queer". It doesn't mean anything anymore. I am in my early thirties and when I grew up, the term was synonymous with "faggot." Thanks to gender studies programs, it has been "reclaimed" and infected the culture at large to mean an infinite number of things, and nothing at all. It is a dead word as far as I'm concerned, and should be locked away in a padded cell with all the nonbinary loons who champion it.

I dislike it, dont use it myself, but cant be arsed getting offended if someone else wants to use it, just dont use it on me

R30's usage is one I do like though (We're HERE, We're QUEER, Get used to it! ) Other than that no.

[quote]wrong, broken, off, not right, and need to be fixed. That's what the fucking word means.

And R32 is right - that was the original meaning. But the usage has changed over time

[quote]But I understand what younger people mean when they use it and it doesn't bother me.

Oh, you do? Then explain it to me. Because I don't believe even THEY understand what they mean when they use it. The word has lost all meaning.

[quote]The British term "poof " is adorable, puts me in mind of elves dancing in a field of wildflowers.

R53 I like this one too, ditto fairy, but nobody has seen fit to reclaim either one of them which is a pity

Like is so stressful I have to started to smoke again . But while I was enjoying a fag a queer though popped into my head..

Hanky’s make so much sense. Labels that people don’t agree with don’t.

I loathe the word.

It’s largely an age thing.

I was too young to feel comfortable calling my partner “my lover” (ick), and now am too old to feel comfortable with “queer.” (My dad would refer to suspected gays as “queer as a three dollar bill,” so that probably feeds my dislike.)

But the younger generation should use the labels that work for them. (And if some of my peers like it, great for them.)

Lots of very old-fashioned attitudes in here. Language evolves, my loves. “Queer” simply means “not straight” now. If you have a problem with that, there are many other accurate terms that you can still use.

R64 there were the Radical Faeries in the 1970s. There’s still some pockets of them around but I think it was too hippie-ish of a thing to take off in the mainstream.

Don't be too surprised R68, the demographic of the average DL commenter is antique Yank.

The mommies of the Under-45s forbid them from saying 'gay'.

A bit off topic. But it’s getting close to Oscar season.

I hear they are going to do a brand new version of Boys in the Band. Different script, same apt, a new cast of straight bi gay queer fag homosexuals who will spend 90 minutes discussing and debating and getting really anger as they argue straight bi gay queer fag homosexual labels .

No sex . But lots of important and riveting discussion.

R72 lol! They already did do a remake of the original movie in 2020 (on Netflix) directed by Joe Mantello. It held up IMO. Other than that there’s a moment when they think the neighbors are going to bust them for having an illegal homosexual gathering, it could pretty much be set today, just by updating the costumes and references.

R73

I have watched the original several times inc last month. For some reason I could not get into the remake.

Maybe I will put it back on my to do list.

R74 I liked it, but it’s a very different interpretation of some of the characters. I think it’s worth watching them both for comparison. I think the fact the actors are all gay in the remake made them play it more sympathetically.

[...]

All things considered, Philly Whore > DARKGEMINILORD.

[...]

I didn't mind Queer in 1990, in the climate of Queer Nation, when the word was reclaimed for use by (some) homosexuals against whom it had been used perjoratively in the past. I understand why some older gays bristled at the term then, but it's use was meant to imply power and audacity to take a place in the world instead of cower or hide.

In it's current use, what's the point? There's no social/political edge; it's simply some who thinks he she or it is an oddball whose identity defies labels. A queer duck...but don't call me gay, don't call me a lesbian, don't call me a bisexual because I'm none of those things, I'm just annoyingly insistent on being addressed as if some very annoyingly rare and special queer duck.

In the current context, it has no meaning to anyone, not even those who use it can explain it.

[quote]“Queer” simply means “not straight” now.

You can say that all you want, but it won't make it true.

[quote]“Queer” simply means “not straight” now.

We live in a ridiculous time when people try to define themselves not by what they ARE but by NOT.

Well, he's not wrong.

I'm not a racist.

I'm not one of those people who...

*by what they are NOT.

Well, most people are somewhere along the Kinsey Scale and it’s actually relatively rare for people to be a pure 0 or pure 6 so what term would you like them to use? And why do you care what terminology other people use, anyway?

I hate "queer". I'm the most normal guy you'll ever meet. Queer doesn't apply to me in any sense of the word.

If they want it, they can have it.

[...]

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R85 well then we have to get into the fact that gender is on a spectrum too and is not a binary. But all that will do is bring out the transphobes who have overrun Datalounge and make every thread discussing gender unbearable so I’ll tap out here and let you fuddy duddies insist upon everyone in the world adhering to simplistic definitions of terms you are comfortable with from your youth in the Victorian era.

[...]

Idiot ^

Hate it, too, OP.

Derogatory name now embraced by those desperate for attention.

Idiot ^

[...]

[...]

Idiot^

I don't like it. It's just become a catch all for every variant of sexuality they can invent. It has nothing to do with sexual orientation. L,G,B. End of. For me, anyway.

[...]

Idiot^

[quote]I understand why some older gays bristled at the term then, but it's use was meant to imply power and audacity to take a place in the world instead of cower or hide.

Most people are neither powerful nor audacious. They're content to live their lives, happy with who they are. I guess there's a power in that, just no audaciousness. It's kind of like mama bear... the ability to go full boar (a lot of species going on, I know) is always there and watch the fuck out, but for the most part it's quiet, but ready. What most of us are is just gay. Turning it into an audacious, 24/7 brass band is a lot of work and probably not really our style. Even the gays have silent majorities of our own sort.

R77 That's gonna be a hard disagree from me. I have no sympathy for narc bis who drag people into their little games and then pull the rug out from under their feet when they feel like trying something different. And they always expect a round of applause and a pride float from gay people for being so "brave".

I was listening to a podcast the other day, they were reviewing The Boys in the Band, it was supposedly hosted by a bi woman and a bi man and they were definitely millfnials and they barely mentioned the word gay it was always "queer" this and "queer" that and it was so fuckibg annoying especially because they were referring to a movie exclusively about gay men. They can call themselves what they like but calling the characters "queer" vs gay just seemed like they were robbing them of their own identity. Ugh it was so annoying.

Especially when the characters and actors likely did not identify with that word back then.

[...]

Idiot^

It’s actually in the script of TBITB that one of the characters identifies as bisexual? Though you could argue, given the time period, whether he actually is, or is just in denial about being gay. (Fwiw in the recent remake I interpreted Tuc Watkins as playing the character as genuinely bi.)

In Mort Crawley’s sequel, another of the characters becomes an ex-gay but it’s best to ignore the sequel, as it is atrociously written and there are good reasons it is almost never performed today.

R92 R104 etc proves the point there is no rational argument for "gender fluidity". It's a made up term for folks with identity issues who crave attention from someone, anyone.

[...]

[quote]Is the big gay bear still around

Who, Pancakes?

R105 that's Hank and he was bi, Michael states he "goes both ways but has a distinct preference"...but that was one character out of like 7.

OP We’re here. We’re Queer. Get used to it!

You do get used to it and, like all noise that just a distraction, you learn to ignore it.

R100

Are you suggesting it’s only bi s that dump you after a while to try something different and never gay men?

Or is the issue for you that they left you for a woman and not another man?

R109 still that is a great example of a time when it is easier and less awkward to say the word “group of queer men” than to say “group of 5 gay men plus one bisexual and one guy who’s claiming to be totally straight but probably isn’t [Alan]”

It’s really just a word used for simplicity and accuracy’s sake when you’re talking about a larger spectrum of sexualities. Not the political statement some people here are making it out to be.

Luckily one has to say “group of 5 gay men plus one bisexual and one guy who’s claiming to be totally straight but probably isn’t [Alan]” even less than one has to worry about the precision of how to.

R114 not if you’re doing a discussion on THE BOYS IN THE BAND? Then you might have to say it quite a lot.

I went to a dance party on 4 floors, during the Folsom weekend here in SF this year. Each floor had a different theme and music. One floor was the "Queer" floor. It had a great DJ and we were all having fun dancing in our jockstraps. Then a person got on a microphone on stage, paused the DJ, and gave a speech about how this was a 'safe space for Queer, Non-Binary, Trans individuals' and that 'all you cis folks here, just be aware of that, ok??'

I said to my partner - um, I am 53 years old, older than any of you little shits, and I've been Queer longer than any of you as a cis gay man. He laughed with me at this. A few minutes later, one guy next to me started blowing another guy on the dance floor (sexual activity was allowed in this party, and was present on every floor). This person who had given that speech went over and kicked the two guys out of the party, saying that this was not the place for that, since they were cis gay men. I was thinking to myself, what if they both identify as non-binary, would blow job be ok then?

[...]

R113 they used the word to describe all the characters, and even with that criteria, just saying "lgbt" would be enough.

R68 Lots of straight people call themselves queer.

[...]

Lots of them are.

I personally don't have an issue with the word, I think the use of it was a bit outdated by the 80s and if people called me anything it was, uh, Matt Damon's favorite word.

But this is one of those things where I do see both sides. I see why younger people want to reclaim it and embrace it as a catch all term, beyond gay and lesbian. And I completely understand why older men, in particular, hear it as a slur and have an emotional reaction to it based on that. I can respect both those groups/constituencies and both those reactions.

I don't dismiss either group or either point of view.

[...]

I’ve never in my life met a bisexual man who was openly bisexual and happily part of the LGBT community. Every single of them were pathetic closet cases who were terrified that the people in their life would find out what they were doing. Even then, most of them to me just seemed like closeted gay men with a “girlfriend.”

One particular guy that sticks out in my mind is an Indian guy who swore up and down he was bi, not gay, and that he had a fiancé in Europe, even though he was only ever interested in sex with men and even knew where all the cruising spots where. He was also terrified of his roommates finding out that he plays with men.

I’ve known lots of men that were bisexual that would just let people assume they were gay or straight, depending on whether they ended up with a man or woman. There is not a lot of support for them in the gay or straight community so many simply do not ever come out as bi.

[quote]... well then we have to get into the fact that gender is on a spectrum too and is not a binary....

Fact, my ass! No, Mary. Look between your legs. There's your binary!

Gender IS a chromosomal certainty. Gender expression is the gamut.

Do you not use the words "men" and "women" anymore. but instead use "people"?

R124

“happily a part of the LGBT community”

You are so right you can see it here on DL every day. Nothing but happily every day. Happy gay men being happy for being part of a happy community and being happy and kind to other gay men.

It’s so much fucking happy it’s sometimes hard to watch .

So sad that bi s don’t enjoy this level of happy.

^ LOL.

[quote]In Mort Crawley’s sequel, another of the characters becomes an ex-gay but it’s best to ignore the sequel, as it is atrociously written...

The Boys in the Band is atrociously written. It's a gay curiosity that happened to appeal to a wider audience than it ever deserved. I find it appallingly bad.

R129

How old are you? And that is not a snarky question. When it hit it hit like something never seen before. It had an edge to it and opened a window in a way that nothing before it had. That is why I like the original better——you can feel its place in time.

It is way over the top. And who would sit thru the abuse of that stupid and cruel phone game.

But in its day…..

'Queer '= a cop-out

Hate It. I'm Gay, Queer is still a negative term.

DarkGL, I get what you're saying. But you're such an asshole about it. For the record, it doesn't make you come across more intelligent when you're rude and a dick without cause. You just come across like an insecure bully.

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R112 I don't date bisexuals. Too unstable, too much baggage, just too much to deal with in general. I was specifically referring to Phillywhore's disgusting story that he always tries to pass off as funny or quirky.

R125 That's opportunism: jumping back and forth so they can fit into a particular group and never having to come to terms with who they are. "Bis have it rough so they never come out as bi" has always struck me as very ignorant of the gay experience. You don't think gay men had/have it rough? Prison sentences, torture, executions, total social ostracization, harassment, all of these are things gay men have been dealing with for centuries. Yet we chose to come out and chose to carve a space for ourselves in society no matter how hard things were. Bisexual men, on the other hand, have overwhelmingly chosen bisexual erasure for themselves as a cop-out. They have that right, sure, but I also have the right to not care about shallow sob stories.

[...]

meow meow meow

R136 well you sure seem welcoming and not at all judgmental, so, no idea why bi guys wouldn’t want to come out to you

To R17,R46, R77, R78, R103 and R136...Good afternoon DGL (or OP) Happy Sunday!!

My ex-wife Alexandria would have a problem with being told she was str8 or Bi. She's a Lesbian....a big one!! Happily married to Nadine her partner, and living in NYC. My wonderful ex-wife is a best lesbian wife I could have& gave birth to 5 wonderful children& we adopted child#6 that was left on the beach in S. California. We had the great divorce too. Have a wonderful Sunday everyone on DL.

You left a child on a beach?

[quote]You left a child on a beach?

The judges need to know: high or low tide?

Why did you and Alexandria get married in the first place, Philly Whore? I had a girlfriend at one point, but I got out before something like that could happen. She wasn't a lesbian, however.

[quote]How old are you? And that is not a snarky question.

I'm sixty. Nothing I said contradicts your assessment, but I still think it is a terrible play. A lot of popular things aren't very good, like drunk driving and Walmart!

That was one of the better Mrs. PRfoBC in quite awhile, R142.

[quote]There is not a lot of support for them in the gay or straight community so many simply do not ever come out as bi.

If there is support for gay people or straight people there is support for bi people. Please stop pretending they're ostracized. They're more accepted than both gays and lesbians.

No FANK YOU!

The word "queer" blows in the most offensive and loathsome way. The word is insulting and hateful--and I want nothing to do with "owning" it.

Bury the word in the ash heap of history.

I'm serious, Phillywhore. What did you mean by "left a child on a beach?"

An Amazon catalog arrived by mail…one straight white couple with two kids…many, many other pairings…but not one lesbian couple or gay male couple. Marketers have decided who matters, apparently.

I loathe the word Queer. And I loathe anyone who uses it to describe themselves.

R140 = fucked a woman for decades, yet he "always knew" he was "gay". Both you and your fauxbian wife are bi. Why is it so hard for bisexuals to simply come out as bisexual? Why the need to hijack words that simply do not describe them? It's almost pathological.

Only "handsexuals" can jerk off. Heterosexuals, bisexuals and homosexuals can't stay hard for their hand.

Masturbation is the same thing as having sex with another human being.

Naive R154 doesn't understand that sometimes a "human being" is a tool like a fleshjack. He thinks you have to be attracted to something to fuck it. Must be a bottom who has trouble staying hard.

If anyone thinks that the word “queer” will be abandoned any time soon — if ever — they are sadly mistaken. Why? Listen to the language used by the alleged, so-called LGBT leaders. They almost always default to using the word “queer” as a substitute for members of the LGBTQ community. And, the members of the media dutifully follow along with them because they assume that is the correct thing to do, and because they are afraid of being called out if they don’t fall in line and use that word.

[...]

Queer, Latinx, etc, were decided upon overnight by academics who somehow convinced companies that this was the new proper language. This wasn’t language evolving. It was dictated in not even a year. They pushed queer in order to have the free-for-all that came later. They could hitch their ride to the successful gay movement. Gay rights weren’t really won because it’s queer rights, and if every queer person doesn’t have their rights, gays don’t really have them either. It was a sneaky thing to do and there was something bigger behind it. Now all legislation that could help gays gets weighed down by the all the “queer” people attached to it (ie, trans, enby, drag, etc). You can’t have simply gay rights.

Queer = trojan horse

[...]

R155 Explain to me why a man who "always" knew he was "gay" would use a woman as a "fleshjack" for decades instead of simply... getting a fleshjack. Hint: he is on the bisexual spectrum and you are so gullible that you take people's self-declarations as gospel.

And I'm not going to entertain the last portion of your post, but I appreciate you showing everybody that you still have deep-seated issues with male homosexuality that you need to work on.

I recently watched one of those overthought "here are my bizarre conspiracy theories on..." ranting so-called documentaries posted on YouTube about "Peanuts" of all things. This "empowered" Q word was used to describe Peppermint Patty and Marcie. Why not lesbian? We've known that for years.

How does the the non DL world see this argument?

some queers are upset that other queers are calling themselves queers.

There is no "we" there's just the personal preferences of individuals.

I don't generally use the word "queer" but I'm fine with anybody else who wants to use it. It has no negative connotations. People trying to police the language choices of others are a different story. I hate those bastards.

Use whatever words or terms you are most comfortable with (barring slurs, obviously).

hate it & no other minority group = jews, blacks, etc try to use slurs to i.d. themselves in civil conversations.

"Queer" as a synonym for LGBT ... fine. But I don't call myself "queer". I'm gay. The whole "queer" movement and identity is founded on transgression. Anyone who breaks social rules around gender/sexuality is "queer", and that's supposed to be radical and political and fascinating.

And it's not. It's fucking boring. If you think your sexuality or gender identity is the most interesting thing about you, then you need to get a hobby and/or personality. And you are not bringing down patriarchy or capitalism because you identify into a gender niche invented on Tumblr in 2013 and have three different coloured streaks in your hair.

R166

It may only be fucking boring to you who do not see yourself as part of that group or activity anyway. So straight up old traditional and accepted gay for you. And nothing wrong with that,

But those who are seen as outlaws breaking rules around gender and sexuality , with their bright color hair,, may now be seen as the new hot sexual outlaws gay men were once seen as.

As gramps always says those crazy kids. You are now the gramps. Don’t worry it happens to us all sooner or later. And in time it will happen to those wild crazy queers as well.

We're fine with it, OP. It's just a word and we call ourselves whatever we like best anyway.

"Queer" is a non-issue.

Queer is a slur.

And the women who use it to describe themselves are attention seeking idiots.

Hate it. Never use it.

The article at r4 needs its own thread.