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'''[[Wikipedia:Queer|Queer]]''' is an umbrella term for people whose sexual desires or gender identity/expression fall outside whatever is deemed to be normative or politically acceptable in mainstream society. In today's "enlightened" western world, ''Queer'' is incorrectly assumed to be a shorthand way of demarcating a minority mainstream identity that is ''simply not heterosexual'' (or [[Wikipedia:cisgender|cisgender]]). In some instances, there is an ''added'' caveat, namely that [[Validity Policing|some homosexual and transsexual people]] may be ''excluded'' from queerness on the basis of politically unacceptable desires, for example "[[chronophilia]]" or "[[paraphilia]]". This [[Rainbow Revisionism|revisionist definition]] of ''queerness'' is highly visible in online communities following the mainstreaming of the LGBTQ+ Movement, but was seldom seen prior.

Originally meaning 'strange' or 'peculiar', queer came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the late 1980s, queer activists, such as the members of Queer Nation, began to reclaim the word as a deliberately provocative and politically radical alternative to the more [[Assimilationism|assimilationist]] branches of the LGBT community. This original repurposing of the term ''queer'', has more similarities with the way anti-assimilationist [[Paraphilia|paraphiles]] currently use the term ''paraphile'', than how present-day assimilationist gay men and lesbians use the term ''queer''.

In the 21st century, queer became increasingly used to describe a broad spectrum of non-normative sexual or gender identities and politics. Academic disciplines such as [[Queer Theory]] and Queer Studies share a general opposition to [[Wikipedia:gender binary|binarism]], normativity, and a perceived lack of [[Wikipedia:intersectionality|intersectionality]].

The queerness of [[Minor Attracted Person|MAPs]] (particularly heterosexual MAPs) is a point of contention both inside, and outside their [[Minor-attracted community|community]]. Some MAPs refuse to use the term, or associate with it.

==See also==

*[[Queer Theory]]
:*[[Michel Foucault]] - Theorist.
:*[[Richard Yuill]] - Theorist.
:*[[Gayle Rubin]] - Theorist.
:*[[Guy Hocquenghem]] - Theorist.
:*[[No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive]] - Critical essay.
*[[Homosexuality]]
*[[Gender Queer: A Memoir]]

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