Queer is Back

This is Pride Month. It’s going to be a history-making Pride parade in Toronto on Sunday when Kathleen Wynne becomes the first sitting Premier to march.

I have to admit I was a little horrified recently when I heard a radio talking head refer to the “gay, lesbian, transgender and queer” in our society. I thought the politically correct terms were LGBT – Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender.  To me, queer has always been a derogatory term so the sound of it over the airwaves raised my hackles. Turns out I’m behind the times and my moral outrage was misplaced.

The up-to-date acronym is LGBTIQ: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer.  Intersex refers to people whose bodies display some or all of either gender’s reproductive organs and therefore don’t fit the classic definition of either male or female. Queer has returned as an umbrella term for any people described in LGBITQ.  There are people who would rather be called queer than gay however this seems to be a generational thing. Older LGBT people still remember when it was a slur against them so it’s mainly adopted by younger folk. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, for example, is a cutting edge title – but again, I thought that was just being clever, not current.

Are you aware of pansexual?  Pansexuals are fluid in their sexual identity and to whom they are attracted. MSM defines men who sleep with other men but aren’t truly gay.

How does this affect your life? Perhaps not at all. But if someone as open-minded and accepting as I am can be unaware of some of the changes in a segment of our society, it occurs to me that many others can as well. It doesn’t mean it’s okay to call someone queer. It just means the word doesn’t necessarily have the sting or the old-school meaning that it used to carry.  And I think it’s important to know that especially during Pride Month.

UPDATE: Wow, do I have timing or what? This morning the US Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act that prevented same-sex couples from receiving the same benefits given to heterosexual couples.  And it struck down Proposition 8 in California, meaning it reversed the ban on same-sex marriage in that state. As so many people, including President Obama, have been tweeting today, “the Supreme Court chose love over hate.”