Exactly. I started reading The Fellowship of the Ring again, and it takes some getting used to that “queer” is used in a completely different way than nowadays.
Queer is a strange one for me, growing up it was a straight up offensive slur for gay people but now the LGBTQ community has embraced it hard enough to give it its own letter.
I’m 40; “queer” was definitely off-limits and felt very wrong when I was young and absolutely, unquestionably straight. I don’t know when it changed for me, maybe the 2010s?… but now it has zero negative vibes in my mind.
Perhaps my acceptance around that time that I am, and have always been, quite queer was responsible for that change in my life.
Addendum: when “Homer’s Phobia” was first aired (I think it’s called?) I was quite young and still felt that being gay is bad and wrong (badong), as I was indoctrinated to believe. I still loved the episode and Homer’s emotional maturation (is that a word?) made me feel good to see, yet it didn’t really affect how I viewed being gay at the time.
It’s funny—when I was “straight”, I would never have used the word “queer”, even to describe things using its non-sexuality-meaning way. It just kinda… tasted vile to say, or hear, if that makes sense?
Nowadays, no matter who says it; be they straight, queer, or… a third thing, it doesn’t taste bad anymore to me. I haven’t heard it used in a derogatory manner since I was much younger (probably due to the reclamation like you said!) but when I imagine someone trying to use it to put someone down, it just seems silly now… like “mhm, sure am, lawl”
I’ve slowly gotten more used to it because it see it used so much in a non-bigoted way, but I think there will always be a bit of cringe on my part with the term.
Maybe i’m too old, but when I was a kid it just meant different, like the family down the street is rather queer, or we played a game where someobody in the classroom would change one thing, like take off their sweater and when you opened your eyes you had to identify which kid was queer
I’ve always heard it as “queer”, and the definition of queer has morphed since then from simply “gay” to “someone whose gender is not easy to define”, or sometimes as an umbrella term for anyone covered by the other letters. The whole thing is rather confusing. I’m content to just treat them like any other people.
But my best gay friend prefers “GSM” for gay and sexual minorities. I don’t like GSM because that is already the Global Standard Man, but I’m a cis-gendered straight white Christian male, so my opinion don’t matter.
Exactly. I started reading The Fellowship of the Ring again, and it takes some getting used to that “queer” is used in a completely different way than nowadays.
Queer is a strange one for me, growing up it was a straight up offensive slur for gay people but now the LGBTQ community has embraced it hard enough to give it its own letter.
As a Gen Xer, same. I still don’t like using the word due to the negative connotation it used to have.
I’m 40; “queer” was definitely off-limits and felt very wrong when I was young and absolutely, unquestionably straight. I don’t know when it changed for me, maybe the 2010s?… but now it has zero negative vibes in my mind.
Perhaps my acceptance around that time that I am, and have always been, quite queer was responsible for that change in my life.
I don’t identify with the term, which definitely makes a difference! It was (very successfully) reclaimed from the bigots to empower LGBTQ people.
Side note, it was nice to see Homer get over his homophobia!
Addendum: when “Homer’s Phobia” was first aired (I think it’s called?) I was quite young and still felt that being gay is bad and wrong (badong), as I was indoctrinated to believe. I still loved the episode and Homer’s emotional maturation (is that a word?) made me feel good to see, yet it didn’t really affect how I viewed being gay at the time.
Indoctrination is a powerful thing!
Ahhhh one of my favorite episodes!
It’s funny—when I was “straight”, I would never have used the word “queer”, even to describe things using its non-sexuality-meaning way. It just kinda… tasted vile to say, or hear, if that makes sense?
Nowadays, no matter who says it; be they straight, queer, or… a third thing, it doesn’t taste bad anymore to me. I haven’t heard it used in a derogatory manner since I was much younger (probably due to the reclamation like you said!) but when I imagine someone trying to use it to put someone down, it just seems silly now… like “mhm, sure am, lawl”
“Dad, why did you bring me to a gay steel mill?” was a top 10 Simpsons moment
We work hard, we play hard!
Yeah, same. It still feels as weird and wrong as the f word or the n word.
I’ve slowly gotten more used to it because it see it used so much in a non-bigoted way, but I think there will always be a bit of cringe on my part with the term.
I thought Q was for questioning.
Maybe i’m too old, but when I was a kid it just meant different, like the family down the street is rather queer, or we played a game where someobody in the classroom would change one thing, like take off their sweater and when you opened your eyes you had to identify which kid was queer
I’ve always heard it as “queer”, and the definition of queer has morphed since then from simply “gay” to “someone whose gender is not easy to define”, or sometimes as an umbrella term for anyone covered by the other letters. The whole thing is rather confusing. I’m content to just treat them like any other people.
But my best gay friend prefers “GSM” for gay and sexual minorities. I don’t like GSM because that is already the Global Standard Man, but I’m a cis-gendered straight white Christian male, so my opinion don’t matter.
I must be old, since the original meaning is still what comes to mind first when I hear it in a non-LGBTQ context.
This is from South Africa in the year 2000. It just means unusual in this context.
https://www.songlyrics.com/saron-gas/beer-lyrics/