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How Inclusive is Queer?
This article appeared in a zine I made for Pride Week 2002, called Bi Dyke.
There are times when I say "queer" as a way to represent everything that isn't heterosexually mainstream. It's nice to have some way to refer to "us" without having to name the whole gang. Full inclusivity always carries with it the danger of leaving someone out.
The benefit of queer is that sometimes it lets us be accepted without having to bring up the political issues which always seem to get triggered by "bisexual." You know the types of questions I mean. It allows us to claim our sexual/gender marginality without having to pretend to be lesbian.
Yet the same invisibility also raises problems. If we're using blanket terms, there's always the possibility that the most powerful politics hold sway without being challenged. Whose politics those are is determined by the pecking order of the community in which you live. I sometimes wonder if the full list of gay lesbian...etc. Constituents are listed in some pre-determined order of importance. If you think not, see what reaction you get from people when you change the order: "transgendered, transsexual, bisexual, lesbian and gay community." How's that make people feel?
Does "queer" just mean "lesbian and gay?" Does it refer only to sexual orientation? Is a heterosexual cross-dresser queer? What about a wealthy lesbian living in the suburbs with her wife and 2.5 kids? Is a BDSM relationship queer? What if it's a male top and female sub? Is that queer? There's no hard and fast definition (although queer sex can be both hard and fast).
Do we need to know who is queer? In a certain sense we do. Like "fag" and "dyke," "queer" is an exercise in reclaiming. If our oppressors are using the word, it's not so much being reclaimed as it is co-opted and re-stigmatized. On a personal note, when someone says "queer" I want to know if they mean me, and if so, how does it apply?
I've heard people say that queer is "more political." It implies an anti-normative stance. Yet I've also heard people say "queer" because they're afraid to say "and bisexual," or "bisexual and transgendered." Or anything other than "gay and lesbian." That's political, but it's not exactly anti-normative. It just substitutes a new norm in place of compulsory heterosexuality.
Some people object to the term "queer" because it's offensive to them. "There's nothing queer about me," they say, or "the only queer people are those that don't love anybody." I understand this up to a point. But when those same people don't do anything to make the terms they do like more inclusive their criticism of queer rings hollow to me.
