''Queer'' is an
umbrella term
In linguistics, semantics, general semantics, and ontologies, hyponymy () is a semantic relation between a hyponym denoting a subtype and a hypernym or hyperonym (sometimes called umbrella term or blanket term) denoting a supertype. In other wor ...
for people who are not
heterosexual
Heterosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction or sexual behavior between people of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" ...
or
cisgender
Cisgender (often shortened to cis; sometimes cissexual) is a term used to describe a person whose gender identity corresponds to their sex assigned at birth. The word ''cisgender'' is the antonym of '' transgender''. The prefix '' cis-'' is L ...
. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used
pejorative
A pejorative or slur is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or a disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something. It is also used to express criticism, hostility, or disregard. Sometimes, a ...
ly against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the late 1980s, queer activists, such as the members of
Queer Nation
Queer Nation is an LGBTQ activist organization founded in March 1990 in New York City, by HIV/AIDS activists from ACT UP. The four founders were outraged at the escalation of anti-gay violence on the streets and prejudice in the arts and media ...
, began to
reclaim
Reclaim, reclaimed, reclaimer, reclaiming or reclamation means "to get something back".
It may refer to:
* Land reclamation, creating new land from oceans, riverbeds, or lake beds
* Dedesertification, reversing of the land degradation in arid ...
the word as a deliberately provocative and
politically radical alternative to the more assimilationist branches of the
LGBT community.
[
In the 21st century, ''queer'' became increasingly used to describe a broad spectrum of non-]normative
Normative generally means relating to an evaluative standard. Normativity is the phenomenon in human societies of designating some actions or outcomes as good, desirable, or permissible, and others as bad, undesirable, or impermissible. A norm in ...
sexual and/or gender identities and politics. Academic disciplines such as queer theory and queer studies share a general opposition to binarism
The gender binary (also known as gender binarism) is the classification of gender into two distinct, opposite forms of masculine and feminine, whether by social system, cultural belief, or both simultaneously. Most cultures use a gender binary, ...
, normativity, and a perceived lack of intersectionality
Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how aspects of a person's social and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege. Intersectionality identifies multiple factors of adva ...
, some of them only tangentially connected to the LGBT movement. Queer arts, queer cultural groups, and queer political groups are examples of modern expressions of queer identities.
Critics of the use of the term include members of the LGBT community who associate the term more with its colloquial, derogatory usage,[ those who wish to dissociate themselves from queer radicalism,][ and those who see it as amorphous and trendy.] ''Queer'' is sometimes expanded to include any non-normative sexuality, including cisgender queer heterosexuality
Queer heterosexuality is heterosexual practice or identity that is controversially called queer. "Queer heterosexuality" is argued to consist of heterosexual, cisgender and allosexual persons who show nontraditional gender expressions, or who adop ...
, although some LGBTQ people view this use of the term as appropriation.
Origins and early use
Entering the English language in the century, ''queer'' originally meant "strange", "odd", "peculiar", or "eccentric". It might refer to something suspicious or "not quite right", or to a person with mild derangement or who exhibits socially inappropriate behaviour. The Northern English expression "there's nowt so queer as folk
English grammar is the set of structural rules of the English language. This includes the structure of words, phrases, clauses, sentences, and whole texts.
This article describes a generalized, present-day Standard English – a form of speech an ...
", meaning "there is nothing as strange as people", employs this meaning. Related meanings of ''queer'' include a feeling of unwellness or something that is questionable or suspicious. In the 1922 comic monologue "My Word, You Do Look Queer
"My Word, You Do Look Queer" is a comic monologue written by Bert Lee and R. P. Weston. It was first performed and recorded in 1922 by English entertainer Ernest Hastings, ", the word is taken to mean "unwell". The expression "in Queer Street" is used in the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
for someone in financial trouble. Over time, ''queer'' acquired a number of meanings related to sexuality and gender, from narrowly meaning "gay or lesbian" to referring to those who are "not heterosexual" to referring to those who are either not heterosexual or not cisgender (those who are LGBT+
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term is ...
).
Early pejorative use
By the late 19th century, ''queer'' was beginning to gain a connotation of sexual deviance, used to refer to feminine men or men who were thought to have engaged in same-sex relationships. An early recorded usage of the word in this sense was in an 1894 letter by John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry
John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry (20 July 184431 January 1900), was a British nobleman, remembered for his atheism, his outspoken views, his brutish manner, for lending his name to the " Queensberry Rules" that form the basis of ...
.
''Queer'' was used in mainstream society by the 20th century, along with ''fairy'' and ''faggot'', as a pejorative term to refer to men who were perceived as flamboyant. This was, as historian George Chauncey
George Chauncey (born 1954) is a professor of history at Columbia University. He is best known as the author of '' Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890–1940'' (1994).
Life and works
Chauncey re ...
notes, "the predominant image of ''all'' queers within the straight mind".
Starting in the underground gay bar scene in the 1950s, then moving more into the open in the 1960s and 1970s, the homophile
Terms used to describe homosexuality have gone through many changes since the emergence of the first terms in the mid-19th century. In English, some terms in widespread use have been sodomite, Achillean, Sapphic, Uranian, homophile, lesbian, g ...
identity was gradually displaced by a more radicalized ''gay
''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
'' identity. At that time ''gay'' was generally an umbrella term including lesbians, as well as gay-identified bisexuals and transsexual
Transsexual people experience a gender identity that is inconsistent with their assigned sex, and desire to permanently transition to the sex or gender with which they identify, usually seeking medical assistance (including sex reassignmen ...
s; gender-nonconformity, which had always been an indicator of gayness,[ also became more open during this time. During the endonymic shifts from ''invert'' to ''homophile'' to ''gay'', ''queer'' was usually pejoratively applied to men who were believed to engage in receptive or passive ]anal
Anal may refer to:
Related to the anus
*Related to the anus of animals:
** Anal fin, in fish anatomy
** Anal vein, in insect anatomy
** Anal scale, in reptile anatomy
*Related to the human anus:
** Anal sex, a type of sexual activity involving s ...
or oral sex
Oral sex, sometimes referred to as oral intercourse, is sexual activity involving the stimulation of the genitalia of a person by another person using the mouth (including the lips, tongue, or teeth) and the throat. Cunnilingus is oral sex p ...
with other men as well as those who exhibited non-normative gender expressions.
Early 20th-century queer identity
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, ''queer'', '' fairy'', ''trade
Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market.
An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct excha ...
'', and ''gay'' signified distinct social categories within the gay male subculture. In his book ''Gay New York'', Chauncey noted that ''queer'' was used as a within-community identity term by men who were stereotypically masculine.[: "In the early 20th century in the United States, the term queer was used as a term of self-reference (or identity category) for homosexual men who adopted masculine behavior (Chauncey, 1994: 16-18)."] Many queer-identified men at the time were, according to Chauncey, "repelled by the style of the ''fairy'' and his loss of manly status, and almost all were careful to distinguish themselves from such men", especially because the dominant straight culture did not acknowledge such distinctions. ''Trade'' referred to straight men who would engage in same-sex activity; Chauncey describes trade as "the 'normal men' ueersclaimed to be."
In contrast to the terms used within the subculture, medical practitioners and police officers tended to use medicalized or pathological terms like "invert", "pervert", "degenerate", and "homosexual".
None of the terms, whether inside or outside of the subculture, equated to the general concept of a homosexual identity, which only emerged with the ascension of a binary (heterosexual/homosexual) understanding of sexual orientation in the 1930s and 1940s. As this binary became embedded into the social fabric, ''queer'' began to decline as an acceptable identity in the subculture.
Similar to the earlier use of ''queer'', ''gay'' was adopted by many U.S. assimilationist
Cultural assimilation is the process in which a minority group or culture comes to resemble a society's majority group or assume the values, behaviors, and beliefs of another group whether fully or partially.
The different types of cultural assi ...
men in the mid-20th century as a means of asserting their normative status and rejecting any associations with effeminacy
Effeminacy is the embodiment of traits and/or expressions in those who are not of the female sex (e.g. boys and men) that are often associated with what is generally perceived to be feminine behaviours, mannerisms, styles, or gender roles, rath ...
. The idea that ''queer'' was a pejorative term became more prevalent among younger gay men following World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. As the gay identity became more widely adopted in the community, some men who preferred to identify as ''gay'' began chastising older men who still referred to themselves as ''queer'' by the late 1940s:
In calling themselves gay, a new generation of men insisted on the right to name themselves, to claim their status as men, and to reject the "effeminate" styles of the older generation. ..Younger men found it easier to forget the origins of gay in the campy banter of the very queens whom they wished to reject.
In other parts of the world, particularly England, ''queer'' continued to be the dominant term used by the community well into the mid-twentieth century, as noted by historical sociologist Jeffrey Weeks:By the 1950s and 1960s to say "I am queer" was to tell of who and what you were, and how you positioned yourself in relation to the dominant, "normal" society. … It signaled the general perception of same-sex desire as something eccentric, strange, abnormal, and perverse.
Reclamation
General
Beginning in the late 1980s, the label ''queer'' began to be reclaimed
Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamati ...
from its pejorative use as a neutral or positive self-identifier by LGBT people. An early example of this usage by the LGBT community was by an organisation called Queer Nation
Queer Nation is an LGBTQ activist organization founded in March 1990 in New York City, by HIV/AIDS activists from ACT UP. The four founders were outraged at the escalation of anti-gay violence on the streets and prejudice in the arts and media ...
, which was formed in March 1990 and circulated an anonymous flier at the New York Gay Pride Parade in June 1990 titled "Queers Read This
"Queers Read This" (also stylized "QUEERS READ THIS!") is an essay about queer identity. The polemic was originally circulated by members of Queer Nation as a pamphlet at the June 1990 New York Gay Pride Parade. It characterizes queerness as ...
". The flier included a passage explaining their adoption of the label queer:
Queer people, particularly queer people of color, began to reclaim ''queer'' in response to a perceived shift in the gay community toward liberal conservatism, catalyzed by Andrew Sullivan's 1989 piece in ''The New Republic
''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...
'', titled ''Here Comes the Groom: The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage''. The queer movement rejected causes viewed as assimilationist
Cultural assimilation is the process in which a minority group or culture comes to resemble a society's majority group or assume the values, behaviors, and beliefs of another group whether fully or partially.
The different types of cultural assi ...
, such as marriage
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...
, military inclusion and adoption. This radical stance and rejection of U.S. imperialism[ continued the tradition of earlier lesbian and gay anti-war activism, and solidarity with a variety of leftist movements, such as seen in the positions taken at the first two National Marches on Washington in 1979 and ]1987
File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...
, the radical direct action of groups like ACT UP, and the historical importance of events like the Stonewall riots. The radical queer groups following in this tradition of LGBT activism contrasted firmly with, "the holy trinity of marriage, military service and adoption hich had
Ij ( fa, ايج, also Romanized as Īj; also known as Hich and Īch) is a village in Golabar Rural District, in the Central District of Ijrud County, Zanjan Province, Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also ...
become the central preoccupation of a gay movement centered more on obtaining straight privilege than challenging power."[ Commentators noted that it was exactly these "revolting queers" (who were now being pushed aside) who had made it safe for the assimilationists to now have the option of assimilation.][
]
Other usage
The term may be capitalized when referring to an identity
Identity may refer to:
* Identity document
* Identity (philosophy)
* Identity (social science)
* Identity (mathematics)
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* ''Identity'' (1987 film), an Iranian film
* ''Identity'' (2003 film), ...
or community, rather than as an objective fact describing a person's desires, in a construction similar to the capitalized use of Deaf
Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an audiological condition. In this context it is written ...
. The 'Q' in extended versions of the LGBT acronym, such as ''LGBTQIA+'', is most often considered an abbreviation of queer. It can also stand for questioning.
Criticism
Reclamation and use of the term ''queer'' is controversial; several people and organizations, both LGBT and non-LGBT, object to some or all uses of the word for various reasons. Some LGBT people dislike the use of ''queer'' as an umbrella term because they associate it with political radicalism; they say that deliberate use of the epithet ''queer'' by political radicals has, in their view, played a role in dividing the LGBT community by political opinion, class, gender, age, and other factors. The controversy about the word also marks a social and political divide in the LGBT community between those (including civil-rights activists) who perceive themselves as "normal" and who wish to be seen as ordinary members of society and those who see themselves as separate, confrontational and not part of the ordinary social order.
Other LGBT people disapprove of reclaiming or using ''queer'' because they consider it offensive, derisive or self-deprecating
Self-deprecation is the act of reprimanding oneself by belittling, undervaluing, disparaging oneself, or being excessively modest. It can be used as a way to make complaints, express modesty, invoke optimal reactions or add humour. It may also be u ...
because use by heterosexuals as a pejorative continues to this day,[Wisegeek]
"Is Queer a Derogatory Word?"
Retrieved 29 January 2014. and some LGBT people avoid ''queer'' because they perceive it as faddish slang, or alternatively as academic jargon.
Scope
Intersex and queer identities
Scholars and activists have proposed different ways in which queer identities apply or do not apply to intersex
Intersex people are individuals born with any of several sex characteristics including chromosome patterns, gonads, or genitals that, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical bin ...
people. Sociologist Morgan Holmes
Morgan Holmes is a Canadian sociologist, author, and a professor at Wilfrid Laurier University, Ontario. She is also an intersex activist and writer, and former member of Intersex Society of North America. Holmes participated in the first public ...
and bioethicists Morgan Carpenter
Morgan Carpenter is a bioethicist, intersex activist and researcher. In 2013 he created the intersex flag, and became president of Intersex Human Rights Australia (formerly OII Australia). He is now a co-executive director. In 2015, he cofound ...
and Katrina Karkazis
Katrina Alicia Karkazis (born 1970) is an anthropologist and bioethicist. She is a professor of Sexuality, Women's and Gender Studies at Amherst College. She was previously the Carol Zicklin Endowed Chair in the Honors Academy at Brooklyn College ...
have documenting a heteronormativity in medical rationales for the surgical normalization of infants and children born with atypical sex development, and Holmes and Carpenter have described intersex bodies as ''queer bodies''. In "What Can Queer Theory Do for Intersex?" Iain Morland contrasts queer "hedonic activism" with an experience of insensate post-surgical intersex bodies to claim that "queerness is characterized by the sensory interrelation of pleasure and shame".
Emi Koyama describes a move away from a queer identity model within the intersex movement:
Such tactic f reclaiming labels
F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''.
Hist ...
was obviously influenced by queer identity politics of the 1980s and 90s that were embodied by such groups as Queer Nation and Lesbian Avengers. But unfortunately, intersex activists quickly discovered that the intersex movement could not succeed under this model. For one thing, there were far fewer intersex people compared to the large and visible presence of LGBT people in most urban centers. For another, activists soon realized that most intersex individuals were not interested in building intersex communities or culture; what they sought were professional psychological support to live ordinary lives as ordinary men and women and not the adoption of new, misleading identity. ... To make it worse, the word "intersex" began to attract individuals who are not necessarily intersex, but feel that they might be, because they are queer or trans. ... Fortunately, the intersex movement did not rely solely on queer identity model for its strategies.
Queer heterosexuality
''Queer'' is sometimes expanded to include any non-normative sexuality, including (cisgender) "queer heterosexuality
Queer heterosexuality is heterosexual practice or identity that is controversially called queer. "Queer heterosexuality" is argued to consist of heterosexual, cisgender and allosexual persons who show nontraditional gender expressions, or who adop ...
". This has been criticized by some LGBTQ people, who argue that ''queer'' can only be reclaimed by those it has been used to oppress: "A straight person identifying as queer can feel like choosing to appropriate the good bits, the cultural and political cachet, the clothes and the sound of gay culture, without ... the internalized homophobia of lived gay experience." Many queer people believe that “you don’t have to identify as queer if you’re on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum, but you do have to be on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum to identify as queer.”
Academia
In academia, the term ''queer'' and the related verb ''queering
''Queering'' is the verb form of the word queer and comes from the shortened version of the phrase ''queer reading''. It is a technique that came out of queer theory in the late 1980s through the 1990s and is used as a way to challenge heteronorma ...
'' broadly indicate the study of literature, discourse, academic fields, and other social and cultural areas from a non-heteronormative perspective. It often means studying a subject against the grain from the perspective of gender studies
Gender studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to analysing gender identity and gendered representation. Gender studies originated in the field of women's studies, concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics. The field ...
.
Queer studies is the study of issues relating to sexual orientation and gender identity usually focusing on LGBT people and cultures. Originally centered on LGBT history
LGBT history dates back to the first recorded instances of same-sex love and sexuality of ancient civilizations, involving the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) peoples and cultures around the world. What survives af ...
and literary theory, the field has expanded to include the academic study of issues raised in biology
Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...
, sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...
, anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...
, history of science, philosophy, psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...
, sexology, political science
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...
, ethics
Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concer ...
, and other fields by an examination of the identity, lives, history, and perception of queer people. Organizations such as the Irish Queer Archive
Irish Queer Archive (IQA) ( ga, Cartlann Aerach na hÉireann) is a comprehensive collection of material in Ireland relating to homosexuality, LGBT literature and general queer studies.
The Archive contains the most comprehensive collection of ma ...
attempt to collect and preserve history related to queer studies.
Queer theory is a field of post-structuralist
Post-structuralism is a term for philosophical and literary forms of theory that both build upon and reject ideas established by structuralism, the intellectual project that preceded it. Though post-structuralists all present different critiques ...
critical theory that emerged in the early 1990s out of the fields of queer studies and women's studies
Women's studies is an academic field that draws on feminist and interdisciplinary methods to place women's lives and experiences at the center of study, while examining social and cultural constructs of gender; systems of privilege and oppress ...
. Applications of queer theory include queer theology
Queer theology is a theological method that has developed out of the philosophical approach of queer theory, built upon scholars such as Marcella Althaus-Reid, Michel Foucault, Gayle Rubin, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, and Judith Butler. Queer theol ...
and queer pedagogy. Queer theorists, including Rod Ferguson, Jasbir Puar, Lisa Duggan, and Chong-suk Han, critique the mainstream gay political movement as allied with neoliberal and imperialistic
Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic
...
agendas, including gay tourism, gay and trans military inclusion, and state- and church-sanctioned marriages for monogamous gay couples. Puar, a queer theorist of color, coined the term ''homonationalism
Homonationalism is often seen as the favorable association between a nationalist ideology and LGBT people or their rights, '', which refers to the rise of American exceptionalism
American exceptionalism is the belief that the United States is inherently different from other nations.
Peggy Noonan, an American political pundit, wrote in ''The Wall Street Journal'' that "America is not exceptional because it has long att ...
, nationalism
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...
, white supremacy
White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White s ...
, and patriarchy within the gay community catalyzed in response to the September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...
. Many studies have acknowledged the problems that lie within the traditional theory and process of social studies, and so choose to utilise a queer theoretical approach instead. One such study was conducted in Melbourne in 2016 by Roffee and Waling. By using queer and feminist theories and approaches the researchers were better equipped to cater for the needs, and be accommodating for the vulnerabilities, of the LGBTIQ participants of the study. In this case, it was a specifically post-modern queer theory that enabled the researchers to approach the study with a fair perspective, acknowledging all the varieties of narratives and experiences within the LGBTIQ community.
Culture and politics
Several LGBT social movements
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movements are social movements that advocate for LGBT people in society. Some focus on equal rights, such as the ongoing movement for same-sex marriage, while others focus on liberation, as in the ...
around the world use the identifier ''queer'', such as the Queer Cyprus Association in Cyprus and the Queer Youth Network in the United Kingdom. In India, pride parades include Queer Azaadi Mumbai and the Delhi Queer Pride Parade
Delhi Queer Pride Parade is organised by members of the Delhi Queer Pride Committee every last Sunday of November since 2008. The queer pride parade is a yearly festival to honour and celebrate lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people (the ...
. The use of ''queer'' and ''Q'' is also widespread in Australia, including national counselling and support service Qlife and ''QNews
''QNews'' is an Australian online news outlet based in Brisbane, Queensland catering to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer communities in Australia. The first issue was published in December 2000.
History
''QNews'' wa ...
''.
Other social movements exist as offshoots of queer culture or combinations of queer identity with other views. Adherents of queer nationalism
Queer nationalism is a phenomenon related both to the gay and lesbian liberation movement and nationalism. Adherents of this movement support the notion that the LGBT community forms a distinct people due to their unique culture and customs.
Q ...
support the notion that the LGBT community forms a distinct people due to their unique culture and customs. Queercore
Queercore (or homocore) is a cultural/social movement that began in the mid-1980s as an offshoot of the punk subculture and a music genre that comes from punk rock. It is distinguished by its discontent with society in general, and specifical ...
(originally ''homocore'') is a cultural and social movement that began in the mid-1980s as an offshoot of punk
Punk or punks may refer to:
Genres, subculture, and related aspects
* Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres
* Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
expressed in a do-it-yourself style through zines, music, writing, art and film.
The term queer migration LGBT migration is the movement of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBT) people around the world and domestically, often to escape discrimination or ill treatment due to their sexuality. Globally, many LGBT people attempt to leave dis ...
is used to describe the movement of LGBTQ people around the world often to escape discrimination or ill treatment due to their orientation or gender expression. Organizations such as the Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees
The International Railroad for Queer Refugees, formerly known as the Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees (IRQR), is an advocacy group for LGBT rights in Iran. It was founded and is headed by Executive Director Arsham Parsi. It was set up on behal ...
and Rainbow Railroad attempt to assist individuals in such relocations.
Art
The label ''queer'' is often applied to art movements, particularly cinema. New Queer Cinema
"New Queer Cinema" is a term first coined by the academic B. Ruby Rich in ''Sight & Sound'' magazine in 1992 to define and describe a movement in queer-themed independent filmmaking in the early 1990s.
It is also referred to as the "Queer New W ...
was a movement in queer-themed independent filmmaking in the early 1990s. Modern queer film festivals include the Melbourne Queer Film Festival
The Melbourne Queer Film Festival is an annual LGBT film festival held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Held in November, the festival is regarded as the largest queer film event in the Southern Hemisphere. The festival attracts around 23,00 ...
and Mardi Gras Film Festival
The Mardi Gras Film Festival is an Australian LGBTQ+ film festival held in Sydney, New South Wales annually as part of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras celebrations. It is organised by Queer Screen Limited, a non-profit organization, and i ...
(run by Queer Screen) in Australia, the Mumbai Queer Film Festival
The KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival (also known as Mumbai International Queer Film Festival and Mumbai International Queer Film Festival) is an annual LGBT event that has been held in Mumbai, India, since 2010. The film festiva ...
in India, the Asian Queer Film Festival
Asian Queer Film Festival (AQFF) is a film festival for LGBT audiences held in Tokyo, Japan. It screens only Asian films. The festival began in 2007 and is held every second year.
2007
Date
*April 14–20, 2007
Place
*Cinema-Arton Shimokitaz ...
in Japan, and Queersicht in Switzerland. Chinese film director Cui Zi'en
Cui Zi'en (), born 1958, in Harbin in the People's Republic of China, is a film director, producer, film scholar, screenwriter, novelist and an outspoken LGBT activist based in Beijing. He graduated from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences wi ...
titled his 2008 documentary about homosexuality in China '' Queer China'', which premiered at the 2009 Beijing Queer Film Festival after previous attempts to hold a queer film festival were shut down by the government.
Multidisciplinary queer arts festivals include the Outburst Queer Arts Festival Belfast in Northern Ireland, the Queer Arts Festival in Canada, and the National Queer Arts Festival
National Queer Arts Festival (NQAF) is an annual queer festival in San Francisco organized by the Queer Cultural Center and established in 1998 to coincide with Pride Month.
Other organisations which have assisted over the years include the Har ...
in the United States.
Television shows that use ''queer'' in their titles include the UK series '' Queer as Folk'' and its American-Canadian remake of the same name, '' Queer Eye'', and the cartoon '' Queer Duck''.
See also
* Gay Shame
* Heterosexism
Heterosexism is a system of attitudes, bias, and discrimination in favor of female–male sexuality and relationships. According to Elizabeth Cramer, it can include the belief that all people are or should be heterosexual and that heterosexua ...
* Homophobia
* Queers (TV series)
''Queers'' is a 2017 drama directed and produced by Mark Gatiss. It was created as part of the BBC's cycle "Gay Britannia", to mark the 50th anniversary of the passing of the Sexual Offences Act 1967. The show features interviews with gay charact ...
* Sexual minority
A sexual minority is a group whose sexual identity, orientation or practices differ from the majority of the surrounding society. Primarily used to refer to lesbian, gay, bisexual, or non-heterosexual individuals, it can also refer to transge ...
* Sexuality and gender identity-based cultures
Sexuality and gender identity-based cultures are subcultures and communities composed of people who have shared experiences, backgrounds, or interests due to common sexual or gender identities. Among the first to argue that members of sexual mi ...
* Queerplatonic relationship
Queerplatonic relationships (QPR) and queerplatonic partnerships (QPP) are committed intimate relationships which are not romantic in nature. They may differ from usual close friendships by having more explicit commitment, validation, status, str ...
References
Citations
General bibliography
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External links
The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society
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{{Sexual identities
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1980s neologisms
English words
LGBT terminology
LGBT-related slurs