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 western world, it is therefore incorrectly assumed to be a shorthand way of demarcating a mainstream identity that is simply not heterosexual or cisgender. In some instances, there is an added caveat, namely that some homosexual and transsexual people may be excluded from queerness on the basis of politically unacceptable desires, for example "chronophilia" or "paraphilia". This 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 assimilationist branches of the LGBT community. This original use of the term queer, has more similarities with way that anti-assimilationist paraphiles currently use the term paraphile, than the way present-day gay men use the term queer itself.

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 binarism, normativity, and a perceived lack of intersectionality.

The queerness of MAPs (particularly heterosexual MAPs) is a point of contention both inside, and outside their 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.
• No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive - Critical essay.

• Homosexuality
• Gender Queer: A Memoir