# Has the word “Queer” been usurped by the Gay Community ? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 29, 2013, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-queer-been-usurped-by-the-gay-community/677412 "2013-12-29T16:34:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2013, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-queer-been-usurped-by-the-gay-community/677412/21 "2013-12-29T18:57:01Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to ween the gays off our love of large an unwieldy acronyms, though. That will depend on your weeners, surely. > [@Enola\_Gay](#): > > Gayrab = pure genius. They should change the name before someone else steals it. It’s not like “sand faggot” is ever going to fly as an alternative. I’m now starting to feel a little apprehensive about giving my friend a call and asking if he’s coming out tonight. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2013, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-queer-been-usurped-by-the-gay-community/677412/22 "2013-12-29T19:17:28Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > It’s not like “sand faggot” is ever going to fly as an alternative. Now I’m going to spend all my time with my bf trying to figure out how to work “sand faggot” into the conversation without him punching me in the cock. ---
**Author:** ![randompattern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@randompattern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randompattern)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2013, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-queer-been-usurped-by-the-gay-community/677412/23 "2013-12-29T19:31:19Z")
I think the only time I use the word “queer” is to describe someone who’s been knocked semi-conscience. Example: I’m watching a hockey game and a player gets slammed into the boards and staggers to his feet, I would say “Man! that guys on queer street!” meaning he’s out of it. As far as meaning odd I would just say odd or strange or weird. ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2013, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-queer-been-usurped-by-the-gay-community/677412/24 "2013-12-29T19:32:12Z")
I have totally given up on the original meaning, though I will still accuse someone of giving me a queer look. Query still works in written form but I dare not verbalize it. Odd duck works but I like “peculiar” best. “Odd” is just too ordinary a word for it’s meaning. Opie: Dad, why did you tell Floyd to be careful not to take too much off the sides? Andy: Well, Opie, I guess that would be vanity. Opie: The table where Aunt Bee does her makeup? A: No, a different kind of vanity…how to explain it? See, being sheriff means I am out in the sun a lot, and if Floyd trims off too much at once it leaves a white stripe below the hair and it looks peculiar. O: (puzzled) A: Do you know what peculiar means? O: Oh yes sir! It means dirty! A: Dirty? Where did you get that idea? O:Well Aunt Bee asked me if I washed behind my ears, and I said “Yes ma’am” and she said they looked peculiar. Above from vintage memory…paraphrased and possibly wrong. Andy Taylor: ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2013, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-queer-been-usurped-by-the-gay-community/677412/25 "2013-12-29T20:08:41Z")
> [@Kevbo](#): > > Query still works in written form but I dare not verbalize it. Huh. The way I say “query” doesn’t sound like “queer” with a “y,” but rather something more like “airy” with a “qu” in front. Or maybe “merry” minus the “m” with a “qu” in front (although my dialect doesn’t distinguish merry/Mary/marry, so for me “query” rhymes with all of those.) ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2013, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-queer-been-usurped-by-the-gay-community/677412/26 "2013-12-29T20:12:47Z")
This thread bring up the painful memory of someone using the term to talk about gender queers, and I assumed he was talking about homosexuals. ---
**Author:** ![MN\_Maenad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e95f7d/32.png) [@MN\_Maenad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MN_Maenad)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2013, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-queer-been-usurped-by-the-gay-community/677412/27 "2013-12-29T20:27:46Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > In think its important to keep in mind that it wasn’t gays who co-opted the word, it was homophobes who began using it as an anti-gay slur. Exactly. Frankly, I’m suspicious of someone who claims to not be homophobic, but then accuses “the gays” of usurping the word queer. The bullies were the ones who made queer = homosexual. Take it up with them. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2013, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-queer-been-usurped-by-the-gay-community/677412/28 "2013-12-29T20:37:25Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > If you think that’s bad, try using [“niggardly”](https://www.google.com/#q=define+niggardly) sometime and see what happens. My father used to teach P. E. in a high school in Harlem, back in about the late 1930’s or so, I think. He was one of only two white teachers there (as I recall him telling the story). He told a story once of a teacher who casually and carelessly used the word “niggardly” in class. So one (or several?) kid(s) go home and tell their parents that “the teacher called us a bunch of niggers!” – Damn near race riot ensues. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2013, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-queer-been-usurped-by-the-gay-community/677412/29 "2013-12-29T20:40:12Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > I’ve had experience with a number of minority groups looking to band together to secure rights and recognition, and there are two paths for them: an “all for one/one for all” model that concentrates on the similarity of the component needs with the aim of including them all, and the “wait, wait, I’m a little bit different and thus special and must be separately identified” model that promotes nothing but ego, isolation and failure. > > I can only liken it to every person of non-white color fighting to have their individual ancestry recognized in separate acts and regulations, vs. recognizing that if Dahomeyans get theirs, Malians will, too. Unless the Malians choose to opt out because _it’s just not the same thing and only the most ignorant White Person could think so_. This certainly isn’t the only problem faced by members of disadvantaged or unprivileged groups. There are pros and cons to each approach, and of course members of each group will disagree on the best choice, or even the best choice in a given situation. And it’s not as though we have fixed all the commonly shared needs. Nor have all the White or otherwise privileged people really recognized and understood any non privileged groups. I’m inclined to wish people well whenever they are trying either of these approaches, and listen for what I can learn (which always turns out to be something interesting). One nice use of the word “queer” is the reclaimed use to identify as a member of any of the sexual minorities, or any of the “letters” if you like. It’s more inclusive than just “gay or lesbian”, and can be used to cover varieties of gender identity, gender expression, physical sex, genetic sex, cross dressing, or even just rejection of any and all the rigid gender and orientation binaries. English has over a million words in its bag of tricks, and if somebody wants to draw on “queer” for this worthy end, I’ll be happy to try to muddle on somehow with “crazy”, “disquieting”, “eccentric”, “funny”, “irrational”, “irregular”, “oddball”, “puzzling”, “singular”, “touched”, “unbalanced”, “unhinged”, “weird”, “anomalous”, “atypical”, “bizarre”, “curious”, “demented”, “doubtful”, “droll”, “dubious”, “eerie”, “erratic”, “extraordinary”, “fishy”, “flaky”, “fly ball”, “freaky”, “idiosyncratic”, “kinky”, “kooky”, “mad”, “mysterious”, “off the wall”, “outlandish”, “outre”, “outré”, “peculiar”, “quaint”, “questionable”, “remarkable”, “shady”, “strange”, “suspicious”, “uncanny”, “uncommon”, “unconventional”, “unnatural”, “unorthodox”, “unusual”, or “wacky” instead. When I hear somebody self-identify as “queer”, one of the things it suggests to me is that this is a person who wants to be seen as they are, and is a bit likelier than average to be ready to see me as I am too. Which I really like. ---
**Author:** ![James\_Toothpaste](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e56c9b/32.png) [@James\_Toothpaste](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/James_Toothpaste)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2013, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-queer-been-usurped-by-the-gay-community/677412/30 "2013-12-29T20:59:01Z")
According to me, queer means weird. Unusual, perhaps. ---
**Author:** ![FXMastermind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fxmastermind/32/7289_2.png) [@FXMastermind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FXMastermind)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2013, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-queer-been-usurped-by-the-gay-community/677412/31 "2013-12-29T21:09:33Z")
> [@Marlonius](#): > > The word “Queer”, (and also the word “Gay”, let’s not forget), have been co-opted by the homosexual community. And the word ‘gay’ has been co-opted by young people to mean stupid. Not homosexual, not happy and care free, to them it means stupid. Words, they sometimes are as odd as silly putty. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2013, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-queer-been-usurped-by-the-gay-community/677412/32 "2013-12-29T21:31:00Z")
> [@James\_Toothpaste](#): > > According to me, queer means weird. Unusual, perhaps. Let me guess. You’re over 40, right? ---
**Author:** ![FXMastermind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fxmastermind/32/7289_2.png) [@FXMastermind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FXMastermind)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2013, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-queer-been-usurped-by-the-gay-community/677412/33 "2013-12-29T21:37:17Z")
> **[Oxford Languages | The Home of Language Data](https://languages.oup.com/)** > > Explore Oxford Languages, the home of world-renowned language data. ---
**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2013, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-queer-been-usurped-by-the-gay-community/677412/34 "2013-12-29T22:35:30Z")
My mother told me not to use the word when I said it using the old, archaic meaning. It was about 1965, and I didn’t understand what she meant when she tried to explain why I shouldn’t. So I would say yes, it’s been usurped. ---
**Author:** ![Marlonius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Marlonius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlonius)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2013, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-queer-been-usurped-by-the-gay-community/677412/35 "2013-12-29T23:16:32Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > In think its important to keep in mind that it wasn’t gays who co-opted the word, it was homophobes who began using it as an anti-gay slur. Yes, you’re right. I misused the word “co-opt”. I’d started typing something else and then edited myself poorly. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2013, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-queer-been-usurped-by-the-gay-community/677412/36 "2013-12-29T23:37:29Z")
> [@randompattern](#): > > I think the only time I use the word “queer” is to describe someone who’s been knocked semi-conscience. Example: I’m watching a hockey game and a player gets slammed into the boards and staggers to his feet, I would say “Man! that guys on queer street!” meaning he’s out of it. As far as meaning odd I would just say odd or strange or weird. Queer Street [**Wikipedia entry**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queer_street): > [@](#): > > Queer street is a colloquial term referring to a person being in some difficulty, most commonly financial. It is often associated with Carey Street, where London’s bankruptcy courts were once located. Among other examples in the article is this: > [@](#): > > In the Sherlock Holmes story “The Second Stain” (1904) Inspector Lestrade chastises a constable, “It’s lucky for you, my man, that nothing is missing, or you would find yourself in Queer Street.” > > In the Sherlock Holmes story and corresponding Granada television series episode, The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, episode 3, “Shoscombe Old Place”, Watson observes that a character in debt is “by all accounts, so far down Queer Street, he may never find his way back again.” ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2013, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-queer-been-usurped-by-the-gay-community/677412/37 "2013-12-29T23:46:23Z")
> [@Marlonius](#): > > I hate the notion of a mis-use of a word changing its definition. Nevertheless, here we are. Oh, yes, the people of Paris speak the most horrible Latin, wouldn’t you say? Drop Cicero on what they persist in referring to as the “Champs-Élysées” (a rather horrendous amalgamation of illiterate sounds if ever there was one!) and he would be quite unable to make himself understood using any kind of real _language_. ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-queer-been-usurped-by-the-gay-community/677412/38 "2013-12-30T00:57:49Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Oh, yes, the people of Paris speak the most horrible Latin, wouldn’t you say? Drop Cicero on what they persist in referring to as the “Champs-Élysées” (a rather horrendous amalgamation of illiterate sounds if ever there was one!) and he would be quite unable to make himself understood using any kind of real _language_. You missed a harrumph there, old bean. Language changes and I believe it is a good sign that our culture has not become so ossified as to disallow new meanings for older words. Speaking as a straight man with many friends who are not. ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-queer-been-usurped-by-the-gay-community/677412/39 "2013-12-30T01:39:19Z")
On more general, but IMO related, lines: it irritates me how in modern times, so many English words seem to have been taken over by connotations of – in one way or another – sexual matters; and thus made unusable in any other sense. Employing “gay” and “queer” to mean respectively “cheery” and “odd”, are at best problematic and likely to be misunderstood. Many decades ago, one might write or speak of an erection, meaning a tall and imposing building; or use “ejaculate” to denote speaking in an exclamatory way. Those word-uses are all but impossible nowadays: they would trigger automatic ribaldry and ridicule. I can sympathise with the hardships faced by the LGBTQ (etc,) community. However, I find it annoying and wearisome, just how many fine words get, effectively, removed from the language, through what at times appears to me the contemporary world’s over-the-top obsession with all things sexual. Perhaps this sentiment indicates my becoming elderly and grouchy. I realise that language changes, and that English has a huge vocabulary, rich in alternatives; but the more-than-tiny number of words effectively lost to the language – as described – for use in any sense _not_ to do with sex, galls me. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-queer-been-usurped-by-the-gay-community/677412/40 "2013-12-30T02:04:00Z")
A few weeks ago, people were getting all pissy because some clothing manufacturer made a Christmas sweater that said “Don we now our “FUN” apparel.” They felt the word should have been left alone. (Gay instead of fun.) That story along side this thread kind of makes me feel we’re trying to have it both ways. So, on one hand, gay can still mean happy or fun, but queer can only mean offense towards gays. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-queer-been-usurped-by-the-gay-community/677412.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-queer-been-usurped-by-the-gay-community/677412.md?page=3)