It's a Queer Thing

L.G.B.T., Lesbians, Gays, Bi-sexual and Transgender, a succinct acronym, no problem. Apparently it isn't sufficient. Lately we're hearing a Q added at the end. Donald Trump, of all people, said this in his acceptance slash the world is ending speech in Cleveland. He slightly snickered when it slipped from his pie hole but did manage to get it out. There's no way he came up with the line so it must have been Ivanka.

But the Trumps did not invent it. If they had the Q would be in gold followed by another T, much larger than the first.

This new thing seems to be spreading but it's not new. Where was I? Oh yes, I was still using proper dictionaries when this total perversion of a word took root.

In the past year and a half it's common use has begun with the blessings of the Equality Foundation and even amongst some in the Human Rights Campaign.

It should not be used and I will tell you why.

The word queer is in fact, less we forget, an actual word. It means odd. Allow me to illustrate, "what a queer chap he is", or "that's a queer thing."  The slang definition was and is intended as a term of insult and degradation to gay people. Just as fag and faggot are. Faggot in case you're interested is a piece of wood that was lit on fire in the middle ages and then used to light the large pile of wood at the feet of the unfortunate intended. It too has a nasty slang intent. Will it be the next letter added?

Like other oppressed minorities who have slang words of degradation slung at them the gay community began to claim the word queer as their own a long time ago. We're here, we're queer, get used to it not to mention Queer Nation. Pop culture has seen the proud ownership of it and in television there was the ground breaking series, first in the U.K., then adapted for Showtime in the U.S. "Queer As Folk".

I have no problem with the word queer. I love words and that one, like them all, as a correct definition. The proponents of adding the Q say it means queer or questioning. This is absurd. It furthers a stereotype that there is something not normal and set apart from society for the L.G.B.T. community and that has been going on for centuries. It's time to turn the page and remove these terms of degradation. As to questioning that to is a word with a meaning.

I believe in questioning all things and I question the addition of the letter Q to the acronym already commonly and properly used.

I refuse to add the Q and you will never see it again in this blog outside this specific post.

But then, I am, a queer fellow.