QUEER: Helpful or Hurtful?

I want to tackle a subject that's spawned great debate within our community over the latter half of the twentieth-century and well into the twenty-first. It's a social identity issue that continues to raise debates across the generations that comprise our current culture and, who knows -- it might be an issue that continues to raise eyebrows and ruffle feathers well into the future.

I am talking about the word QUEER.

Now, I want to preface this post with a general disclaimer: I am not an academic and I am not well-versed in the historical context of this term. I'm aware that the original definition of the term "queer" was not related to sexual preference. I know it's a word that was reclaimed from negative connotations and it is now employed as a catch-all term to unite the disparate groups under the LGBT umbrella. Aside from that, the etymology escapes me.

Despite all of that, I find myself returning to this same discussion with each new person I meet.

When I first came out, I detested the word. I thought it was derogatory and strange and I did not see myself reflected in it. I'm not quite sure how this opinion developed, but I became aware of it once I entered my undergrad and heard it used throughout classes and social events on campus.

I remember meeting another woman in a coming out discussion group who explained that it took her about one year to come around to the notion she was Queer. It was a slow acceptance for her and she fought against her own internalized idea that identifying as "queer" connected her to a history of oppression and violence targeted toward individuals perceived as unconventional or questionable. In the end, she came to realize that Queer could be a uniting word. We could redefine it and create a linguistic space through which lesbians, gay men, trans people, bisexuals, two-spirited people, questioning individuals, or any other labels could connect and thereby belong to the same community.

Once I saw the word in this context, I adopted it for myself. I mean, I've even included the word Queer in the name of this blog. I feel more connected to it than I do with the term "Lesbian." I find it suits me and gives me a wider radius to define myself.

And yet, there are still others out there who see the use of this word as an acceptance of institutionalized hatred.

Again in that first year of my undergrad degree, I took a course in LGBT theatre and was exposed to further discussions on this same topic. Our professor was in his late forties and he supported the use of "Queer" to define the community. However, he told us about his other friends, all of his age group, who cannot rationalize the term. In their adolescence, same-sex relationships were illegal according to Canadian law. The word "Queer" held a great deal of hate and fear to it, connotations that are not easily shaken after decades of use. Our professor's friends could not ever bring themselves to identify with the word and they found it to be counterproductive now that it's used as an umbrella term for the community.

Heck, he even told us that his friends felt the younger generation was undermining previous efforts to erase the word from the Canadian vernacular.

It's quite the divisive term, it would appear.

I'm curious to know what readers think about this issue. Do you identify as Queer? If you do, what connects you to the term? If you don't, what leaves you feeling disassociated from it? What are your opinions about reclaiming once hurtful words or symbols, such as the pink and black triangles or the word "queer," for the community?

And for those straight allies out there, I'm curious to know your thoughts on the term. Do you feel comfortable using it to describe this community? If a friend referred to herself of himself as Queer, would it conjure up a different image for you vs. gay, lesbian, bi, pansexual, or other social identities?

Discuss.