Forum Census 2010!

[Scream]

[Catatonic]

[GERARDAMO]

[onthesly-girl]

I know some people who don't feel comfortable using 'gay' 'lesbian' 'trans*' or 'bisexual' to describe what they're feelin', so they like using 'queer' because it acts as a nice blanket, all-inclusive term. I kinda like it. I don't think I'd ever refer to myself as queer b/c I don't mind calling myself a lesbian (although, I actually prefer just saying I'm gay lol) but yeah.

[GERARDAMO]

I like calling myself a fag, and I blame BSS and Stars t-shirts for it entirely. I know it has a super terrible origin and connotation but whatever I like the way it sounds and I don't call anyone else a fag.

[Farmer]

[GERARDAMO]

[parkthatcar]

[Catatonic]

Fag doesn't really have any negative connotation over here. People have only really used it recently as a joking reference to gays but that's only really "internet people". People are aware of what it means to Americans because of TV/films but as it isn't rooted in history as being bad in the UK no one cares and it's not in common usage in that way. It's just the word for cigarettes to most people.

And to me the biggest group of people that keep using queer as a positive thing are "right-on" homos that generally irritate me. I think that's what it is really, the sort of people that generally use it and the way it gets used "queer culture" etc, yuck. Queer as a word = weird, to me there's no way of getting away from that. It feels almost as wrong as hearing someone say "boi-pussy" I cannot think of a bigger turn off.

[GERARDAMO]

That's interesting. Queer has more or less become the generic and politically correct/safe term among people Stateside when referring to LGBT+ without wanting to offend anyone by leaving them out, and the people I know who typically use it most are very level-headed or my professors.

And anytime I get tired of it, I just think of the Garbage song and the word gets WAAAAAAAAAAY cooler.

[onthesly-girl]

What Gerard said. Er, the first thing, not the thing about Garbage

Maybe it's just the same thing. 'Queer' comes off like what Gerard said here, but different in the UK? Same as 'fag' comes off differently here than the UK.. idk

I feel like you should use what you want to describe yourself, don't judge anyone else in the lgbtq community for using whatever /they/ want to use to describe themself, and refer to others as whatever they prefer to be referred as.

[GERARDAMO]

[Catatonic]

[GERARDAMO]

I think queer carries more connotations that one falls outside of a heteronormative/heterosexist society. It's the generalist umbrella term that exists, kind of like how straight typically describes not only heterosexual but also cisgendered now. It is a shame that our umbrella term has to imply outside the norm, though.