Queer is a general word for the members of the LGBTQ+ community. In other words, people who are not straight and/or cisgender. It used to be a slur that was used against gay people in the past but it has been reappropriated by the community.
Like the TheUglyBarnacle said, it's a term used for people who aren't hetrosexual and/or not cisgender It can be used to describe homosexuals, bisexuals, pansexuals, asexuals, demisexuals, transgenders, agenders, bigenders, genderqueers, androgynes, androsexuals, gynesexuals, etc...
Thanks for your answers Okay, so she said she's queer but we can't know if she's lesbian or not-cisgender, then?
Okay, but it could mean being lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, asexual or so on... But why don't tell "I'm lesbian" or "I'm bi/pan..."????
Well it does say, "people have asked me if I have a boyfriend and I’ve purposely chosen to just say “no” with no further explanation.” So I think she's saying she's gay. I don't know why she couldn't just say that though... But usually if someone says they're queer, people assume they mean gay anyway.
Very interesting ... and brave. Looking at her picture, especially the one in what was probably a pageant evening gown, it sort of begs the question "What does a gay or lesbian person look like?" And then comes the answer "There's no way to tell." She wouldn't have tripped any sort of 'dar for me. Her comment about her "queer stamp" was humorous and shows she doesn't take herself that seriously, which is very becoming.
Good on you, girl! Anyone who says lesbians can't be pretty needs to be redirected to this article, stat!
What I like about queer is the openness of the 'label'. It encompasses so many options we only know she is different. It seems more private. I'm only quessing though. Any thoughts?
Wow she's really beautiful but one thing I love is the fact that she came out because in the black community a lot of black people still believe that black people can't be gay and that's it only happens to other races . Plus one thing I've seen is people have a hard time with a woman liking women and being pretty . It's nice to see another femme out there proving ignorant people wrong . (!):eusa_clap
I totally agree: queer is a beautifully open descriptor (Dan Savage has a theory that all LGBTI people should just identify as Queer considering how many letters representing different gender and sexual orientation types keep being added to what was previously just LGBT which itself used to be just Gays & Lesbians). Her blog post does intimate that she is gay though she isn't explicit about this. As you point out she is claiming to be different without going into un-necessary details. I think Queer as an identity in some way kind of suggests that we are more than just our non-hetero sexual beings. As an umbrella term,and this might sound a litlle bit pretentious, Queer, in my opinion, says that while we might be non-heterosexuals we aren't any more or less driven by our sexual desires than those who inhabit Straightland. In fact Queers are part of Straightland too, being that the majority of people in the world are straight, we can not help but be part of that world and while we have different sexual orientations to the majority, generally speaking we don't place any more emphasis on sex (as compared with things like love and family and friends and work and leisure) than straight people do. Too often, still in this day and age, bigots so inclined will wheel out the negative stereotypes of gay men as being totally pre-occupied by a quest for sexual encounters (as if straight men are any different - generally speaking) or that lesbians are only so inclined because they have yet to find "the right man" to satisfy them. These types of bigots are obsessed by sex and sexuality. This is what they bore down into invariably to the exclusion of the 99% of the time almost every person isn't having sex. Queer kind of implies for me at least that LGBTI are whole, real people. Betchya didn't expect that never-ending sperg of text when you asked the question did you? You might think twice next time huh? Ha ha:icon_wink
