Where Does 'Queer' Fit In?
Filed By Guest Blogger | January 08, 2012 4:00 PM
http://www.bilerico.com/2012/01/where_does_queer_fit_in.phpEditors' Note: Guest blogger Wintersong Tashlin is a presenter and writer whose work focuses on topics related to sexuality, spirituality, BDSM, Queer/LGBT issues, and polyamory. When not on the road presenting he makes his home in southern NH.
Labels play an inescapable role in how we are perceived by others, and perhaps even by ourselves. Consider the act of "coming out." When we come out, we add another label to the preexisting collection that inform how others perceive us. In many cases hoping that this new addition doesn't override older labels like "friend," "child," or "co-worker."
Within the greater LGBT community there are many labels and ways of identifying. Some are broadly accepted and have widely, if perhaps not universally agreed upon meanings: gay, lesbian, and perhaps bisexual are the ones that come immediately to my mind. But beyond those three there is a swirling soup of labels whose particular meaning and acceptability are in dispute: transgender, pansexual, genderfluid, cisgender, queer, transexual, homoflexible, genderqueer, dyke, and even asexual, all carry with them some level or another of contention and debate.
