A good thread on whether “queer” is a slur and if it should be used or not.
“If I am unashamed of being queer, you do not get to give that word BACK to the fuckwits who made it a slur.”
you do not get to give that word BACK to the fuckwits who made it a slur
EVERYBODY WHO CAME OUT BEFORE YOU HAS TAKEN THE ROCKS AND BOTTLES AND MADE THEM INTO SHIELDS AND WINDCHIMES
Holy motherfucking shit. Don’t fucking come at me about Queer is a slur. I FUCKING KNOW IT IS. It was hurled at me like a fucking spear all through my youth. I know it’s a god damn slur. And it’s mine. You don’t get to take it away from me because you can’t take also away the scars it gave me while I was standing in front of my younger queer siblings in this community.
always, always reblog this one.
If my enemy swings a sword at me and I take that sword away from them, it’s my sword now. And the person telling me I can’t use it because it belongs to my enemy and I have to give it back to them sounds quite a bit like an enemy themselves.
This was exactly my reaction when, in 2015, a 15yo on Tumblr came and sent me a load of hate for being “an OMG ACTUAL ADULT” calling myself ‘queer’ and using ‘queer community’.
Like, how to put this. In Australia since the early 90s, ‘queer’ has been the accepted term to call that community. It’s a mainstream word. We say ‘queer theory’, ‘queer community’, ‘queer organisations’, etc. Another Australian who words for the government said it’s a perfectly acceptable term to use in policy documents and funding applications. Here, in Australia, queer hasn’t been a slur at any point in my life. The only Australians I’ve ever come across who think it’s a slur are people who spend too much time around American youths on social media.
I did a post about the international queer community, it got 5-7k notes (ish) and people from at least 10 other countries said ‘queer’ is not a slur in their country and it’s just the word that’s used for the queer community.
This is why it drives me nuts when a 15yo from South Carolina, USA assumes:
1) Her experience with ‘queer’ is the same as everybody else’s
2) A small number of people having a bad experience with ‘queer’ is an acceptable reason to deny and police usage by the entire wider international queer community
The short of it is that it’s not acceptable. Many older queer folks have used this word for decades – it’s been in common use since at least the 80s. In the past 3 years it’s become very fashionable (mostly only on Tumblr, but on pockets of social media elsewhere, too) to treat queer as this Big Bad Slur (forgetting that there are many other slurs and most of our language gets used as slurs at some point by various people) and to pop up on every fucking post that mentions queer like “UM EXCUSE ME IT’S FINE FOR YOU TO CALL YOURSELF QUEER BUT IT’S LITERAL ABUSE FOR YOU TO USE IT FOR OTHER PEOPLE LIKE AS AN UMBRELLA TERM AND YOU ARE A BAD PERSON!!!”
like. babe. I’ve never met you in my life. You live an entire world away from me and you can’t tell me what language I’m allowed to use for myself and my own community. If you don’t like the word, you have trauma associated with it or whatever, I accept that. I feel for you, I have trauma about some words, too. USE XKIT BLACKLIST. Your trauma is your problem, just like my trauma is my problem. Yes, really. Get counselling. It’s not everyone else’s responsibility to change their identities and language because of your trauma. That’s not a lack of empathy from me, that’s a hard life lesson you need to learn about the world not revolving around you. I am not abusing anyone by using the language I’ve always used about my own community.
It’s not the end of your world, though. You’re not doomed to read ‘queer’ all over tumblr forever. There are many many many tools available for you to protect yourself and avoid triggers. You should be responsible for yourself and your experience online and protect yourself from seeing things that upset you.
“BUT I’M A MINOR!!”, you cry! okay, true. Get up from the computer, go directly to your parent or guardian, and let them know you’re not old enough to police your own internet usage and ask them to do it for you. It is not my responsibility to take care of you. It is no one else on Tumblr’s responsibility to take care of you. The internet is not just for kids. If you can’t take care of yourself, your parents need to help you do that.
The short of it is if you’re old enough to know the word ‘queer’ upsets you, you’re old enough to download xkit blacklist and add ‘queer’ to the blacklist words. If you’re not doing that, I have to assume you’re actually trying to pick fights with queer people and it’s more of a power struggle to you than anything about semantics.
“BUT I SHOULDN’T HAVE TO USE XKIT! IT’S AN EASY CHANGE FOR YOU!” Dude, you’re asking me to change my whole identity. You’re asking me to change my lexicon for you. It’s not an easy or fair change for you to ask me to make. Xkit is a quick and easy solution for you (and now, you can use the tumblr innate tag blocks, too). If that’s too much for you to do, I have a feeling you’re just looking for a fight and not actually traumatised by ‘queer’.
NEVER. NEVER. Come onto a queer person’s post and start telling them anything about how to use their word. Queer folks get policed and oppressed enough by cishet folks. We don’t need people from our own community trying to police our language and language we’ve used for decades and continue to use in many countries and in many parts of the US.
There is absolutely no reason to derail posts being “””””””helpful”””””””” by repeatedly, constantly, aggressively spreading rhetoric that shames people for using language we have used for ourselves and our community for decades. Your problem with the word queer should not be my problem, so don’t make it my problem.
Do you know what I find interesting about asexual vs pansexual as identities? A lot of people who identify as either at one point thought they were the other.
So how could a pansexual possibly mistake themselves for an asexual, or vice versa? Well, I’ll use my own experiences regarding questioning as an example, because I was one of these people. At one point I thought I was ace, but I’m actually pan.
I guess I should start with why I define myself as pan instead of bi. The most commonly accepted definition of pansexuality is “attraction regardless of gender.” For me personally, gender isn’t really a factor in whether or not I find someone attractive.
So here’s where the confusion comes in: you don’t feel any sort of special way for one gender over another. Maybe you even feel sort of indifferent to gender. Does this mean I’m asexual or pansexual? The key is how you experience attraction to other people, if you feel any at all. The trick is figuring out what it means and how it feels to be “attracted” to someone, which is a very personal thing for everyone.
Keep in mind that these were my personal experiences. They’re different for everyone, but they can sometimes share a common pattern. There’s nothing wrong with exploring your identity and changing your labels as you make discoveries. This is one of the biggest reasons why a-spec solidarity is so important to me as a pansexual. I know where they’re coming from.
This is why bi/pan/ace solidarity exists!!! This is why we’re the triforce sexualities!! A lot of ace people thought they were bi before there was language to identify otherwise. A lot of ace people think they’re pan before they realize they’re not AND VICE VERSA!!!
Discourse fucking murdered bi/pan/ace solidarity because of their hatred of aces and they can fucking kiss my ass if they don’t think destroying that solid bond between us didn’t leave some gnarly scars.
It’s one of the biggest reasons I started getting involved with ace discourse, because I saw the attempt being made to sever our solidarity. I was so incredibly lucky to have gone through my questioning phase back when Tumblr was more-or-less ace-friendly, because going through it in, say, 2016 during the height of some of the most toxic anti-ace discourse would have messed me up hard. All of it is very anti-questioning and I have a huge problem with that, as anyone should.
It’s a real head trip when you realize you’re BOTH too.
oh gosh, it’s nice to see this put into words, because I always feel sort of possessive of both communities
So like… what do gatekeepers… DO in the real world? Like if they’re at an LGBT+ event and a bi woman is like “Hi I’m Emily and this is my boyfriend,” do they like… confront her? When a person at a support group says “I’m asexual” do they just sit silently and stew in their own rage? Like how do you people function in the real world??
An enormous amount of gatekeepers don’t interact with local queer groups and communities at all. The younger ones don’t have access, and the older ones got black listed a long time ago for being vile.
That lack of access, for the younger ones, is why they are so easily targeted by older radfem types, and is why the age of gatekeepers is so skewed towards young people, btw. They have no way to experience actual queer communities, so they get sucked into this awful, dangerous parody of it.
That was a rhetorical question but this is a damn good answer
[image description: a tweet from RoAnna Sylver (@RoAnna Syvler) reading “This June, please rememeber that there are more LGBT books than the ones you see everywhere put out by the Big 5, ad indies are amazing/worthy.” The next reblog is a tweet from Heather Rose Jones (@heatherrosejones) reading: “Making a list of queer SFF for Pride Month? Remember to look outside the mainstream presses. Don’t shut queer publishers out of queer lit.”]
Here’s a bunch of Goodreads lists that might help!
Out of
curiosity, I recently googled “Am I lesbian quiz”. Half the “Are You a Lesbian” quizzes just asked outright, “Are you attracted to women?” as though that isn’t the
very answer a questioning lesbian is trying to figure out. The other
half marked me as heterosexual for things like owning more nail varnish than
dogs. I hope this list will give you more nuanced ideas to think about
as you explore your identity.
These experiences are all really common among – but not universal or exclusive to – people who later realize they’re lesbians and find a comfortable home in the lesbian label and community.
It’s mostly stuff that I and
other lesbians I know have wished we knew when we were first coming to
grips with our lesbian identities, because the fact is it takes a long
time to discover how common a lot of these experiences are among
lesbians, and not knowing what to look for when trying to figure out if
you’re a lesbian can be hard.
‘Attraction’ to men
Deciding which guys to be attracted to – not to date, but to be attracted to – based on how well they match a mental list of attractive qualities
Only developing attraction to a guy after a female friend expresses attraction to him
Getting
jealous of a specific female friend’s relationships with guys and
assuming you must be attracted to the guys she’s with (even if you never
really noticed them before she was interested in them)
Picking a guy at random to be attracted to
Choosing
to be attracted to a guy at all, not just choosing to act on it but
flipping your attraction on like a switch – that’s a common lesbian
thing
Having such high standards that literally no guy meets
them – and feeling no spark of attraction to any guy who doesn’t meet
them
Only/mostly being into guys who are gnc in some way (losing interest when a long-haired or androgynous guy cuts off his hair or grows a beard is common)
Only/mostly being attracted to unattainable, disinterested, or fictional guys or guys you never or rarely interact with
Being deeply uncomfortable and losing all interest in these unattainable guys if they ever indicate they might reciprocate
Reading your anxiety/discomfort/nervousness/combativeness around men as attraction to them
Reading a desire to be attractive to men as attraction to them
Having a lot of your ‘guy’ crushes later turn out to be trans women
Relationships with men
Feeling anxious and put on the spot any time you interact with any guy who could conceivably be interested in you, even if he doesn’t make a move
Dreading what feels like an inevitable domestic future with a man
Or looking forward to an idealized version of it that resembles literally no m/f relationship you’ve ever seen in your life, never being able to picture any man you’ve actually met in that image
Being
repulsed by the dynamics of most/all real life m/f relationships you’ve seen
and/or regularly feeling like “maybe it works for them but I never want my
relationship to be like that”
Thinking you’re commitmentphobic
because no relationship, no matter how great the guy, feels quite right
and you drag your feet when it comes time to escalate it
Going
along with escalation because it seems like the ‘appropriate time’ or bc
the guy wants it so bad, even if you personally aren’t quite ready to
say I love you or have labels or move in together etc.
Or jumping ahead and trying to rush to the ‘comfortably settled’ part of relationships with guys, trying to make a relationship a done deal without investing time into emotional closeness
Feeling
like you have to have relationships with guys and/or let them get
serious in order to prove something, maybe something nebulous you can’t
identify
Only having online relationships with guys; preferring not to look at
the guys you’re interacting with online; choosing not to meet up with a
guy even if you seem very into him and he reciprocates and meeting up is
totally realistic
Getting
a boyfriend mostly so other people know you have a boyfriend and not
really being interested in him romantically/sexually
Wishing your boyfriend was more like your female friends
Wishing your boyfriend was less interested in romance and/or sex with you and that you could just hang out as pals
Thinking you’re really in love with a guy but being
able to get over him in such record time that you pretend to be more
affected than you are so your friends don’t think you’re heartless
After a breakup, missing having a boyfriend more than you miss the specific guy you were with
Worrying that you’re broken inside and unable to really love anyone
Sex with men
Having sex not out of desire for the physical pleasure or emotional closeness but because you like feeling wanted
OR: preferring to ‘be a tease’ to feel wanted but feeling like following through is a chore
Only being comfortable with sex with men if there’s an extreme power imbalance
Only having sex with men that’s about fulfilling their fantasies or pleasing them
Spending the whole time making sure you look or sound hot and not really thinking about what feels good
Using sex with men as a form of self-harm
Feeling
numb or dissociating or crying during/after sex with men (even if you
don’t understand that reaction and think you’re fine and that you’re crying etc for
no reason)
Being bored with sex with men/not understanding what the big deal is that makes other women want it
Doing it anyway out of obligation or a desire to be a good sport/do something nice for him
Never/rarely
having sexual fantasies about specific men, preferring to leave them as
undetailed as possible or not thinking about men at all while
fantasizing
Having to make a concerted effort to fantasize about the guy you’re “attracted” to
Early interest in women
Not recognizing past/current crushes on women until you’ve come to grips with your attraction to women
Being unusually competitive, shy, or eager to impress specific women when you’re not that way with anyone else
Wanting to kiss your female best friend on the mouth for literally any reason (”to practice for boys” included)
Getting butterflies or feeling like you can’t get close enough when cuddling with a close female friend
Looking at a close female friend and feeling something in your chest clench up and being overwhelmed with love for her – love you may read as platonic
Having
had strong and abiding feelings of admiration for a specific female
teacher, actor, etc., growing up that were deep and reverent
Having had an unusually close relationship with a female friend growing up that was different and special in a way you couldn’t articulate
Thinking
relationships would be simpler “if only I were attracted to women/my
best friend who would be perfect for me if she/I weren’t a girl”
When
a female friend is treated badly by a man, having your protective
thoughts turn in the direction of “if I was him/a man I’d never do that to her/my girlfriend”
Being utterly fascinated by any lesbians you know/see in media and thinking they’re all ultra cool people
Having
your favourite character in every show be that one gay-coded or butch-looking woman
(like Shego from Kim Possible or Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica)
Feeling weirdly guilty and uncomfortable in locker rooms etc., when your
female friends are less clothed than they normally would be around men,
and being more careful not to look than they are
Spending a lot of time looking at women and appreciating/being curious about their bodies
Being really curious about women who defy gender roles in some way, finding defying gender roles in dress, behaviour, styling etc really appealing and cool
The ‘straight’ version of you
Thinking that all straight girls feel at least some attraction to women
Thinking
that your interest in seeing attractive women/scantily clad women/boobs
is an artificial reaction caused by the objectification of women in
media
Thinking you’re just a super intense feminist for genuinely thinking women are amazing and having an overwhelming preference for their company
Being really into how women look “aesthetically”/“just as artistic interest”/“fashion goals”
Thinking it’s objective and uncontested that almost all women are way more attractive than most men
Being a really intense LGBT+ “ally” and getting weirdly
emotional about homophobia but assuming you’re just a Really Good Ally
and v empathetic
Having like half your friend group from school turn out to be LGBT+
Getting emotional or having a strong reaction you don’t understand to f/f love stories etc.
Having had people think you were gay when you had no suspicion you were gay
Exploring attraction to women
Feeling like you could live with a woman in a romantic way, even if you can’t imagine doing anything sexual with a woman
Feeling like you could enjoy sexual interaction with a woman, even if you can’t imagine having romantic feelings for a woman
Thinking
you couldn’t be a lesbian because you’re not attractive enough, cool
enough, or otherwise in the same league as most of the women you know
Interacting
with het sex/romance in media by imagining yourself in the man’s
position or just never/rarely imagining yourself in the woman’s position
Really focusing on the women in het porn
Being really into the idea of kissing/being sexual with a woman ‘to turn guys on’
Being really annoyed when guys actually do express interest in watching or joining in when you do that
Only feeling/expressing attraction to or sexual interest in women when you’re inebriated or otherwise impaired
Gender Feelings
Having a lot of conflicting gender feelings that are only possible to resolve once you understand you are/can be a lesbian
Thinking
that being gnc and feeling a disconnect from traditional womanhood mean
that you can’t be a woman even if that’s what feels closest to right –
many lesbians are gnc and many lesbians feel disconnected from
traditional womanhood since it’s so bound up in heteropatriarchy
Knowing
you’re attracted to women and not being able to parse that (esp + any
gender nonconformance) as gay, taking a long time to figure out if
you’re a straight man or a lesbian
Being dysphoric about the
parts of you that make straight men think your body is owed to them,
having to figure out what that dysphoria means for/to you
Wishing straight people and/or men didn’t parse you as a woman, but being totally comfortable with the idea of other women seeing you as one of them
Knowing
you’re attracted to women, but feeling weirdly guilty and uncomfortable
trying to interact with them as a straight man, and only later
realizing you’re actually a trans lesbian
Knowing you’re gay, but feeling like you’re struggling against comp het stuff – discomfort, obligation, fear, disinterest, self-objectification, etc. – when you try to interact with men romantically/sexually, and only later
realizing you’re a trans lesbian and not a gay man
Being
nonbinary and taking a long time to sort through being able to
respect/understand your nonbinary identity and your lesbianness at the
same time
Considering lesbianism
Wanting to be a lesbian but feeling like if you don’t already know you are one you can’t be
Feeling alienated from all the male-gazey unrealistic depictions of lesbians as
only being young thin rich white cis abled conventionally attractive gender
conforming straight actresses in tv/movies/porn and thinking that
alienation means you can’t be gay
Discovering that your type is gnc women or women who share your underrepresented demographic and that’s why you’re not really attracted to celebrities
Not feeling attracted to straight women but suddenly having lots of crushes when you know for sure certain women are bi/gay
Feeling
guilty about wanting to be a lesbian, feeling like you’re just
attention-seeking or trying to be trendy
Suppressing your lesbian
dreams because you think exploring that desire would mean you’re a
bad/homophobic person using lesbianness selfishly
Wishing you were a lesbian to escape the discomfort of dating men
Fantasizing
about how much fun it would be to be a lesbian and just be with women/a
specific woman, but thinking that can’t be for you
Worrying that some of your past attraction to men was actually real so you can’t be a lesbian
Worrying that bc you can’t be 100% sure you’re not attracted to men and can’t be 100% sure you won’t change your mind, you can’t be a lesbian
Worrying that you only want to be a lesbian because of trauma and that means your lesbianness would be Fake
Worrying that trauma-induced complications in how you experience sex (e.g., a habit of self-harming via sex w men or a fear of/lack of interest in any sex at all) mean you’re not a Real Lesbian
Every item on this list is common among Real Lesbians. It’s all Normal Lesbian Stuff. If you’re worried that you can’t be a lesbian even though it’s the life you really want for yourself, I hope this gives you permission to explore that. You are allowed to be a lesbian.
And if you’re not sure yet – if you took the time to read this entire thing because you’re curious about your identity, if you identified with a bunch of items on this list – you may or may not be a lesbian, but friend, you almost certainly aren’t cishet. Welcome.
(I’d love to hear other things lesbians wish you’d known were A Thing when you were first exploring your identity!)
To clarify, I’m having trouble writing out how he came to realize he was genderfluid (since most all people usually start out thinking they’re just like everyone else, you know?)
Okay, so we get a lot of these questions, and I find them hard to answer. I’m going to give it a try though. Here, for all of you wondering, are my general tips for writing genderfluid characters:
There is a lot of variety among genderfluid people! Some switch names, some don’t; some switch pronouns, some don’t; some switch presentation, some don’t. We have different kinds and degrees and presence/absence of dysphoria, same for medical transition, same for social transition. Some of us switch between two genders, some between many, some rapidly, some slowly, some regularly, some unpredictably. For some the switch is very noticeable, for some not; for some it’s sudden, for some it’s gradual. Some switch between male and female, others between different genders. It’s okay for your character to be any of these things, but don’t set them up as the Genderfluid Person Prototype. It would be good to acknowledge within the narrative that there exists a lot of variety and not every genderfluid person is like your character.
Many genderfluid people identify as trans, but some don’t. All, however, have access to the term. Don’t confuse “trans” with “binary trans”.
Do research on trans and nonbinary and genderfluid stuff: terminology, politics, lives, problems, ideas. Not just from here. From a lot of sources. Make sure you’re clear on the definition of genderfluid and the difference from other labels—there can be and often is overlap, but you need to understand the differences first. And don’t allow your narrative to be cissexist unchallenged.
Have a trans, ideally nonbinary, ideally genderfluid person read over your story and offer criticism and suggestions. Even more ideally, have more than one do so.
Remember not every genderfluid person is white/skinny/dfab/western etc.
You could have more than one trans/nonbinary/genderfluid person, if you wanted! Go wild!
Is your character dmab or dfab (or possibly intersex)? Are you going to clarify this in the narrative, or keep it hidden? You have various options here, and there are advantages to each. Decide and figure out how you’re going to deal with that.
Don’t equate changes in presentation with changes in gender. They may be correlated for your character, but they’re not the same, and your narrative should acknowledge that.
If your character is closeted, that doesn’t mean you have to misgender them in the narration. Again, there’s variety here. Someone might be fully aware of their gender but not out to anyone, but still use pronouns in their head that make them comfy—if it’s from their perspective, you should use those pronouns. Or they might not be aware of their gender—there are a lot of directions you could go for pronoun usage in this scenario. Or they might be trying out different pronouns inside their head. Or they might not be out to themself but still find themself using different pronouns. To be honest, it’s kind of gimmicky and gross to do the whole, narrate using pronouns associated with assigned gender until they realize or come out or change presentation or transition somehow, then make a dramatic pronoun switch—especially if you, the writer, are a cis person. I would avoid that. And to be honest, if you’re narrating from their point of view and they have a fully developed pronoun preference, there’s really no excuse for your narration to misgender them, regardless of if they’re closeted. (Other characters’ dialogue, of course, is a different matter.) If you’re trans, there’s a little more leeway. But be careful here, and be respectful. Don’t use pronoun changes for shock value, and don’t use being closeted as an excuse to misgender them just because it’s more comfortable for you. (This point is slightly different with genderfluid characters than other nonbinary or trans characters, but it still applies. If pronoun switching is happening, it should probably be because their identity is switching.)
We get kind of lonely. Does your character know any other trans/nonbinary/genderfluid people? Any internet friends? Any support groups? If not, again, they’re probably feeling pretty lonely.
We don’t pop out of the womb knowing everything there is to know about gender. There’s generally a lot of research and thought involved, if we’re at the point where we know what we are and what it means.
Take into account cultural factors. Two people from different cultures and/or time periods will probably have different experiences, conceptualizations, and expressions of their gender.
Make sure that your character has traits and interests other than their gender. It’s more important to some of us and less to others, but we’re all full people that exist beyond being genderfluid.
Is your story realism or fantasy? If it’s fantasy, is there transphobia and cissexism in your fictional world? It doesn’t need to be the focus, but I think it’s a good idea to at least acknowledge that transphobia/etc is a thing in our/the world.
I feel like I’m forgetting something but I can’t think of it.
As for your specific question, again, there’s a lot of variety. Personally, I had a sudden epiphany in which I realized I wasn’t my assigned gender, then I went and did a ton of research and introspection over a few months to a year to understand the specifics. I know many people start out using one type of trans label, and cycle between others until they find one that works. Often people encounter someone else who’s trans/nonbinary/genderfluid, feel a sense of recognition/identification, and realize they’re like that too. Or that could happen through some other source—a character, a news article, etc. Sometimes people know something’s up and gradually figure out it’s to do with their gender, and what the specifics are. Some people have always been aware of their gender doing A Thing, and how that thing works, and eventually find the words for it. Some people notice odd characteristics/preferences/behaviors in themselves that confuse them, so they do some research and come across these terms and ideas. Those are just a few ways people can realize.
seriously though bisexuality being defined as attraction to men and women is a heterosexual’s definition of bisexuality actual bisexual groups and organizations have been defining it as attraction to two or more genders or same and other genders since the nineties and plenty of nb people actually id as bi and refusing to accept how we define ourselves is so absurdly biphobic and heterosexist and jfc it’s 2014 can other queer people fucking realize and acknowledge this
The purple stripe on the bi flag is meant to represent attraction to nb genders and the bisexual manifesto published in Anything That Moves includes the lines “Do not assume that bisexuality is binary or duogamous in nature … In fact, don’t assume that there are only two genders.” That was published in 1990. It’s older than a lot of people here, including me, and older than terms like “pansexual” and “polysexual” by at least a decade. Bi history is important.
Lmfao what the fuck are you on?? Q*eer was originally used to refer to trans and sga people BY CISHETS to refer to us as abnormal and wrong. It’s a fucking slur. If you choose to use a slur as your only personal identifier then yes, your identity is a God damn slur. This is so disrespectful to every lgbt person with trauma surrounding that word, and you’re the one who’s being ahistorical. Asshole.
I’m on education that came from somewhere other than tumblr, my dude.
We’ve been calling ourselves queer since before WWII. It was not originally used “by cishets”. It was used by us. To describe us. Interchangeably with gay, which was used by all genders.
Ten years before you were born, Queer Nation was fighting for rights you now enjoy, marching in the streets. Queer Nation was founded by members of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), an organization for AIDS advocacy, because we were literally dying in the streets. Which is where die-ins came from, by the way – during the AIDS crisis when hospitals wouldn’t touch us with a ten foot pole, people protested by literally dying in a place inconvenient for the powers that be.
Whoever “taught” you that queer is a slur and always has been lied to you.
We’re still here, we’re still queer, go educate yourself.
If you can’t give me sources on q*eer being used by lgbt people BEFORE they reclaimed it from cishets using it as a slur i really don’t care what you have to say
Wow sorry about your inability to use google. If the internet is too hard, you could try picking up a book at your local library!!!! Like, how about My Queer War by James Lord or
i'll apple your turnover 