I must be old, since the original meaning is still what comes to mind first when I hear it in a non-LGBTQ context.
Exactly. I started reading The Fellowship of the Ring again, and it takes some getting used to that “queer” is used in a completely different way than nowadays.
samus12345@sh.itjust.works 21 hours ago
daggermoon@piefed.world 19 hours ago
This is from South Africa in the year 2000. It just means unusual in this context.
the_crotch@sh.itjust.works 23 hours ago
Queer is a strange one for me, growing up it was a straight up offensive slur for gay people but now the LGBTQ community has embraced it hard enough to give it its own letter.
samus12345@sh.itjust.works 21 hours ago
As a Gen Xer, same. I still don’t like using the word due to the negative connotation it used to have.
Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 hours ago
I’m 40; “queer” was definitely off-limits and felt very wrong when I was young and absolutely, unquestionably straight. I don’t know when it changed for me, maybe the 2010s?… but now it has zero negative vibes in my mind.
Perhaps my acceptance around that time that I am, and have always been, quite queer was responsible for that change in my life.
samus12345@sh.itjust.works 20 hours ago
I don’t identify with the label, which definitely makes a difference! It was (very successfully) reclaimed from the bigots to empower LGBTQ people.
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the_crotch@sh.itjust.works 21 hours ago
Yeah, same. It still feels as weird and wrong as the f word or the n word.
samus12345@sh.itjust.works 21 hours ago
I’ve slowly gotten more used to it because it see it used so much in a non-bigoted way, but I think there will always be a bit of cringe on my part with the term.
zjti8eit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 hours ago
I thought Q was for questioning.
Maybe i’m too old, but when I was a kid it just meant different, like the family down the street is rather queer, or we played a game where someobody in the classroom would change one thing, like take off their sweater and when you opened your eyes you had to identify which kid was queer
the_crotch@sh.itjust.works 21 hours ago
I’ve always heard it as “queer”, and the definition of queer has morphed since then from simply “gay” to “someone whose gender is not easy to define”, or sometimes as an umbrella term for anyone covered by the other letters. The whole thing is rather confusing. I’m content to just treat them like any other people.
zjti8eit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 hours ago
But my best gay friend prefers “GSM” for gay and sexual minorities. I don’t like GSM because that is already the Global Standard Man, but I’m a cis-gendered straight white Christian male, so my opinion don’t matter.