First there was Queer as Folk then Queer Eye For the Straight Guy and then today on Chicago Public Radio’s Odyssey the guests, both incidentally female of undetermined sexuality, both spoke of Andy Warhol’s blatant “queer identity” as it related to the acceptance of his art. For years I’ve thought it was an offensive word when used by anybody not in the “fraternity.” When/how did it change? Can I, as a straight guy, start calling gay guys “queers?” Pretty please?
Context, context and context.
It is everything from a completely acceptable term such as “queer theory” etc, to a term of indearment, to highly offensive.
It still is . . . as far as DrMatrix and I are concerned.
I still think it was a mistake to call that new show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Gay Eye . . . would have been as effective, and not given the OK for kids to yell “queer!” at their schoolmates.
Agree totally, Eve, though I will use it as a joke to counter the friends who call me a “breeder.”
I just noticed something, though. Cajun Man, didn’t you used to live in NYC? Why Rock Island? So you could get as far from the bright lights as you could? 
Last year I used the word queer to refer to a “gay porno shop” next to the antique store I was in w/ my lady friend. I said something like, “Did you see that queer place next door?” (It had dildos & nude male porno pix in the window.) Well, the cashier overheard me & got very upset that I used the word ,because he was “gay” & he told me he didn’t like the word queer. I told him too bad, then realized he was a cashier, maybe had a gun under the counter & left quickly. So, i guess some don’t like it.
BTW, one of the women on that show also described Warhol as “swishy” compared with the burly and manly Jackson Pollock. I mean, no argument (though I thought Pollock was compensating ), but is this really what you expect on what Joe Bob Briggs calls “National Communist Public Radio?”
The grass-roots AIDS activist group Queer Nation, formed circa 1990, was perhaps the first well-known use of queer in its reclaimed sense. The Queer Nation manifesto.
A bit about the word “queer”:
It was adopted in the late '80s by the activists in the GLBTI movement who didn’t want to spend half their life saying “gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender/intersex” everytime they talked about the community. Since GLBTI was difficult to pronounce outside of Russia, “queer” was adopted as the catch-all word.
Problem was, (and still is), is that “queer” was used as a derogatory term for many years. In fact, most words used by and about gay people were either derogatory terms (even “gay” started out this way) or were originally medical terms (homosexual, transsexual, even lesbian). There were some efforts to adopt words such as “uranian” (30’s) and “homophile” (50’s), but they are now used only in historical references. So you see, we haven’t had a whole lot of positive terms to turn to. So “queer” was reclaimed.
Not every GLBTI person likes the term. Since I was somewhat involved with Queer Nation in its heyday, I don’t mind the term. My partner, who is older than me by about 10 years, loathes the term. She’s had it used against her on more than one occasion, and it still hurts.
My take on it is that unless you’re queer or queer-positive, have plenty of queer friends, know who people like, say, “Kate Bornstein”, “Harry Hay”, “Audre Lorde”, “Susie Bright” and “Patrick Califia-Rice” are, don’t use the word queer. If you qualify, chances are you know how and when to use the word. Otherwise, people like your clerk up there won’t think of it as offensive and will justifiably call your sorry ass on it.
EDIT:
Otherwise, people like your clerk up there WILL think of it as offensive and will justifiably call your sorry ass on it.
My apologies.
I’m interested to know what homosexuals think of heterosexuals being called “Straight” It implies that what they are is right, and that gay people have strayed from the straight, normal path. I hear gay people call non-gay people “straight” all the time, but I think that it would offend many gay people… Anyone?
When? Well, it hasn’t completely, for at least some gay people.
Seems to be rather a generational thing in the GLBT community. Older people (45 plus) will often still say they find it offensive – much older (retirement age) will say very offensive. Younger people find it OK, and very young ones will claim it is the ‘prefered’ term.
It’s certainly shorter & easier to use than some of the terms created by trying to be politically correct and fully inclusive: “gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, intersexed, questioning, and friends” - glbttiqf??
But it’s often a source of conflict in glbt organizations. The young activists want to use “queer” in names or press releases, and the older people (who are often the ones who finance the organization) are greatly offended by use of that term.
I remember first hearing the term used positively in an ACT-UP meeting in NYC in the late '80s, and thinking, “oh my god, what are we bringing upon ourselves now?” But then I remembered a previous generation bristling at my generation’s use of the word “gay,” and how they eventually got used to it. For many years “gay” had been an in-crowd code word that usually went hand-in-hand with changing pronouns, as in “Oh, isn’t she just too, too gay?” In that usage, it always reminded me of Cole Porter or Noel Coward.
So just as the previous generation came to accept the word “gay,” my generation is coming to accept the word “queer.” And yes, it all depends on context. If *you *use the word to me, I might take offense.
Does anyone still use the term to mean “wierd”, “odd”, or “strange”?
Then what is the simile for a 3 dollar bill?
Kinda like how the preferred word has changed from colored to Negro to black to African-American to “whatever term you use will piss off SOMEBODY” just in my lifetime, eh? Though Eve might ask what the hell is wrong with Noel Coward and Cole Porter.
I believe I will go with Ms Swan from MAD-TV’s “monkey in a bush” when describing male homosexuals. It’s nonsensical yet vaguely offensive and a fairly obscure, at least to people with social lives, cultural reference. It’s got it all!
I think Gay Eye for the Straight Guy is a better sounding title. More assonance. Maybe they could change the name and use that as their tag line: “Now with more assonance!”
Anyway, I’ll echo my fellow Dopers and say that “queer” is still a word to be used with caution. It’s still used in a derogatory way often enough that even in a neutral context (“Turn left past the queer bookstore…”) the word might unintentionally come across as an insult. Even if context makes it abundantly clear that the word is not meant as an insult (“We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it!”) there are still plenty of people who cringe inwardly at the sound of it.
Well in UK in the 70s and 80s queer pretty much only meant strange where I lived. And the phraise “There’s nowt as queer as folk” was recognised as a saying from ‘up north’ about how strange people can be. Homosexual derogatory words that were used would be gay, homo, poofter, pansy, queen, or fairy. The word queer had very little to do with homosexuality. So someone saying ‘Boy George was Queer’ would have been refering to his flamboyant and strange style, not his sexual prefference ( which at the time Boy George said was for ‘A Cup of Tea’ ).
If you’re a homophobic person, and you’re saying it to be offensive, then yes “Queer” is an offensive term. But as someone who has been labeled a “fag hag” thus making me equal with most gay men, when used in joking forms, or in titles for shows, then certainly, it’s not offensive. But if one were to yell at a homosexual “YOU STUPID QUEER” or “GET OUT OF MY STORE, QUEER BOY!” Then that would not be acceptable. I suggest you not use it… Just to be safe… For example Eminem gets away with a lot of Racist slurs because he does a lot of rap. But look at how poorly J-Lo was looked on by using “THE N WORD” in that one terrible song that sounds like all the other songs she sings… People don’t accept that because she’s dumb, and doesn’t understand, or deserve to be on such a level where she can joke and freely use such slang. Just don’t test the waters. Make friends with a lot of Gays and Lesbians, and we’ll talk about it later…
I do often, though rarely in the presence of anyone that I do not know well. It usually gets a laugh. I work with many “non-heteros”, and have never been told that it’s offensive, and belive me, this crowd would say so.