Happy Pride Month, day 2, queer

[sonia]

2. I am proud of being queer. I was going to say proud of being bi, but that feels more like it’s vaguely embarrassing. I know I’m supposed to be proud of it! Although now that I say that, it’s just a fact about me like brown (now graying) hair.

Reposting a relevant quote from Nina Felwitch

I don't remember who said it and I don't remember the exact words, but being queer is more than just being part of LGBTQIA+. It's political. It's leftist, progressive, anti-fascist.
Fascists can never be queer.
People who reject this word, which the community has reclaimed, usually do so because they don't want to stand out, they want to be assimilated into cisheteronormativity. They want to be "normal", whatever that means.
Being queer is being proud to be different and fighting for a better future for all of us.

I am queer and I am proud to be queer. Being queer makes life more colorful, more beautiful.

Comments

[sanguinity]

being queer is more than just being part of LGBTQIA+. It's political.

It is, very much so!

Related, I also say that being any piece of LGBTQIA+ is political. The homophobic senators who get caught cruising may be homosexual, but they are not gay, largely because they're unwilling to claim the word for themselves. It isn't the same kind of political as queer, but even so: being willing to take any of those names and wear it, to say that you feel some kind of kinship with everyone else who wears it... That's political too, and non-trivially so.

they don't want to stand out, they want to be assimilated into cisheteronormativity. They want to be "normal", whatever that means.

Trans-exclusionists and other small-tent people also reject the word queer, largely because queer is an umbrella big enough for anyone who wants to claim it, including whoever is being contested today. But as far as I'm concerned, that big-tent-ness of queer is reason enough to love the word.

[sonia]

I also say that being any piece of LGBTQIA+ is political.
Excellent point, thank you! I am proud to be part of LGBTQIA+. I've just absorbed the idea that being bi is somehow less committed, more wishy-washy than the others, even though I know that isn't true.

that big-tent-ness of queer is reason enough to love the word.
Yes, fully agree!

[sanguinity]

Yup, those are easy messages to internalize about being bi. But anyone who is willing to claim the word can be presumed to be willing to claim the fight, too.

(Disclosure: I id as lesbian or bi, depending on whichever I think is more relevant to the conversation -- but usually just say 'queer', figuring that covers the field nicely.)

[sonia]

<3

[tshuma]

Also proud of being queer and still learning how I wear that label.

[sonia]

<3

[silveradept]

Bisexuality still has a societal stigma of "indecisiveness" or "greed", depending on who you're talking to, even though it is neither of those things, and media representation hasn't really grasped it well enough to make it visible. Plus, there's all the bi erasure that goes on when bi people are in straight-looking relationships, and yeah. It makes sense that embarrassment would be a reaction to it when there's so much around that makes it a punchline or a joke or a shameful thing.

Queerness, yes, is political, I usually see the shortcut "Not gay as in happy, queer as in fuck you" used to describe the difference between queer and some of the other spaces in QUILTBAG. So being proud to be weird and queer and apart from a norm that you've rejected and aren't chasing is a strong act.

[sonia]

<3