Trans People Are Not Queer (An Introduction)
http://yidpunk.wordpress.com/2011/02/10/trans-people-are-not-queer-an-introduction/ (http://yidpunk.wordpress.com/2011/02/10/trans-people-are-not-queer-an-introduction/)
2/10/11
My contention here is that there is a problem with "queer" as regards inclusion and transgender, transsexual, and genderqueer people. Though I do see other uses, I frequently notice "queer" being deployed as a supposedly inclusive umbrella term, sometimes the preferred umbrella because of its political connotations, its openness (or rather, I would argue, its convenient vagueness), or simply its pithy, one-syllable nature. I have seen many people (that is, many trans people) state that transsexuals — except of course when they are gay or genderqueer, as many are — are not queer. And yet I observe the above sense constantly in casual use and in writing. "Queer" gets used as a stand-in for "LGBT," and let's be realistic here: there is no damn "T" in "LGBT."
Ugh!
Just when I thought there was a term by which anyone who is not hetero and cisgender could rally behind....
I struggle, myself, with issues involving inclusion but why can't there be just one word that means, "I'm not like you?"
Well, I'm gay, not queer. Whatever "queer" means now, it's something other than "gay," and it's something that doesn't describe me.
mmm... *taps finger against lips*
For whatever it's worth: I don't consider myself queer, I don't feel part of the GLBT movement (though I sympathise with them and support their cause), I'm simply this individual who was handed out the wrong packaging given the content (and who figured this out during a bank-holiday).
This is why I like the Icelandic term "hinsegin".
It literally means "the other kind" and refers to anyone who doesn't fit into the heteronormativity into which we are all assumed to fit into from the moment of our birth.
part 2: http://yidpunk.wordpress.com/2011/02/14/trans-people-are-not-queer-part-2-why-queer/ (http://yidpunk.wordpress.com/2011/02/14/trans-people-are-not-queer-part-2-why-queer/)
I'm with Emma. I don't identify as queer.
I feel like my experience is one of a more medical nature. I identify with intersexed people far more than the 'queer' community.
I am queer. I volunteer at the LGBT center. I am bisexual and I am one hell of a wierd chick. Yep.
Queer.
:)
I enjoy the identity of queer. I called myself straight until my wife transitioned, but now we share the identity of queer. Straight just doesn't describe me anymore. Queer, as different or other is what I embrace as the umbrella that shelters those who choose to stand under it. I find it to be a friendly term that wants to be inclusive of all who are not straight.
True, it has the connotation from past usage of homosexual, but words change over time.
Straight people often don't use the word queer as a replacement for LGBT, they use the word gay. They do not mean any harm. As I said to a straight friend of mine on Facebook who posted that he wanted to express his support for all gay people: I'd rather be lumped and loved that separated and hated.
The more we own and use the word queer and express our pride, the more the straight world will begin to care about what that might mean.
I'm queer, but not because I'm trans.....
I don't mind queer, and many are, so the headline is a lie.
This is why I like the Icelandic term "hinsegin"
The German word is "Ausländer" - but it's lead to some problems over the years.
Counter-cultural is perfect, but way to clumsy, so I prefer 'freak'.
Part 3
Trans People Are Not Queer, Part 3: "Queer Is The Opposite Of Straight"
http://yidpunk.wordpress.com/2011/02/20/trans-people-are-not-queer-part-3-queer-is-the-opposite-of-straight/ (http://yidpunk.wordpress.com/2011/02/20/trans-people-are-not-queer-part-3-queer-is-the-opposite-of-straight/)