The term "queer" is like marmite: some members of the LGBTQ+ community love it while others hate it.
It has been long used as a slur against the community but more recently, particularly millennials and those from the Gen-Z generation, have been "taking back the narrative and ownership" of the controversial phrase by self-identifying as queer. Despite this, other members of the community have emphasised the importance of remembering the history of the word and the context it was used in.
The first recorded written example of queer being used as a slur dates back to 1984 when reportedly, John Douglas, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry, discovered his son was in a relationship with Oscar Wilde. Wanting to prosecute the author in any way possible, Douglas launched a court case against the playwright arguing that he was a sodomy-obsessed man who lured prostitutes into a “lifestyle of degeneracy”. Throughout the trial is when the phrase first surfaced as Douglas referred to gay men as “snob queers” and in doing so established it as a derogatory descriptor for gay men. American newspapers are said to have picked up the term almost immediately using it to highlight the fact that homosexuality, at the time, was seen as “strange and abnormal". Then, and even now, it was used mostly to target effeminate gay men.
READ MORE: Wrong and abnormal’ feeling many LGBTQ+ people battle with daily
Closer to home, in Britain, the Oxford dictionary differentiated between using it as an adjective and a verb. Regardless, the word itself holds pain for many LGBTQ+ members and has been described as a "dagger and a hug, a dismissal and a welcome sign, a put-down and a motivation to stand up and march". But as language shifts and terms take on new meanings, members of the same community have been reclaiming the adjective which was once used against them.
Chloe Hallam, the co-founder and current president of the Queer society at Edge Hill University, explained that for her it was “all about ownership over language”. She told the ECHO : “I will happily say I am queer, but people will hesitate to refer to me as a queer woman, but that is how I identify. Regardless of how I come across, queer is the descriptor that I have given myself and the sense of ownership is something that is really important to me.
"I see queer as an umbrella term, one that is a lot more community-based. Sexuality-wise, I am bisexual, but queer to me feels like such a powerful word and makes me feel part of something bigger than just the bisexual community and helps me connect with the LGBTQ+ community at large. Some people see queer as a dirty word, and I personally really want to get past that and reclaim the phrase."
Echoing a similar sentiment, Emily McChrystal, the youth empowerment director at Comics Youth CIC, said the term “means a lot to me as I feel it is the label that truly encompasses who I am, how I feel and explains to the world who I am.” The 22-year-old from Huyton developed a program titled The Queer Agenda through her work as she “truly believes the more we use language that was once against us, it removes the power that it used to have over us”.
The former English literature student said: “To me, it means I can tell others who I am without restricting myself to a box that does not represent me fully. I feel like queer just perfectly explains my identity and the stage I am at in my self-understanding. I have used labels in my past that did not feel right for me, or have not evolved with me as I have evolved throughout my life. I feel like queer is open enough to encompass that I am not straight or potentially not cis-gendered, but I do not have to have it all figured out into a neat phrase or box like the other labels would require me to.”
However, for many of the older members of the LGBTQ+ community, they cannot forget its barbed usage in decades past and believe its history should be remembered. Mike Homfray, the Rainbow Toffee’s group liaison, said it was “not a term I would immediately use to describe myself”.
The 60-year-old added: “It's a term with a number of meanings, from an academic theory through to a way some people identify themselves. I can understand it on a range of levels but I don't know if it's a generational thing but my identity is primarily that of a gay man - that's how I see myself.
“I understand why some people find it difficult and cannot re-formulate the word to make it appear positive. If you associate it with physical or verbal aggression that's understandable. I think these things are organic - it has to a large extent been reclaimed and I wonder if some younger people actually realise that it was ever used as a slur at all? On one level it should be up to those who decide they want to use it positively but I hope they can understand why that may be a challenge for some people.”
Other members of the community, including a non-binary drag queen, Dys Alexia, believe that the term can be used to describe anyone who is “outside the norm and not just an LGBTQ+ person”. They told the ECHO : “To me, queer means anybody who defines themselves outside the ‘norm’ and is open-minded and totally without prejudice. I feel liberated living outside the box and am very proud to live a life seeing everybody as equal despite their gender, race or sexual orientation. I personally don’t see the word as offensive so I see no need to reclaim it, if somebody prefers not to be called queer, then others should respect it.”
The city centre-based performer explained how “we can’t ban every word” and feels there are other slurs that are worse in comparison. They added: “The list of slurs goes on and on, we simply need to educate people that all slurs are unacceptable. I recall a guy shouting across the road at me saying ‘you’re a f**cking gay boy’, it wasn’t very nice but the fact is, I am. The word queer should stay in the LGBTQ+ acronym and should be proud of. Not everybody defines as gay, lesbian, bisexual or trans and why should they? If it were up to me I would shorten LGBTQ+ to simply ‘Q' as it says it all.”
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