Are you queer?
By Fleur
@Fleura (29108)
United Kingdom
May 14, 2021 6:56am CST
“Are you queer?”
This would have been a playground taunt when I was at school, addressed to someone suspected of not being heterosexual.
Now though it is apparently a legitimate question from ‘authority’.
The other day I was asked, by the theatre where I work as a volunteer, to complete an online questionnaire because they are “required, by Arts Council England, to collate and report diversity data about their workforce on an annual basis”.
I dutifully filled in the usual data about role, age, ethnic background (I hate having to categorise myself like this - but I was given the option of ‘prefer not to say’) and eventually I got to the question about sexuality.
I was asked to choose from the following:
Bisexual
Gay (man)
Gay (woman)/Lesbian
Heterosexual/Straight
Queer
Prefer not to say
I confess I thought the first four categories ought to be enough to cover everyone, but when I asked Big One she laughed in that way teenagers do when faced with their ‘ignorant’ parents and gave me a whole list of different ‘sexualities’.
However when I asked what exactly ‘Queer’ was supposed to mean she wasn’t able to answer that, and after looking it up concluded that it can have a whole host of different meanings depending on who you ask.
So how do you define the term ‘queer’?
All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2021.
9 people like this
10 responses
@mythociate (21437)
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
14 May 21
One or two I didn't see up there: As'xual, Celibate.
(which one might think are the same thing---and they kind-of are; but I'm the second and not the first ... maybe, I dunno 
)
Maybe 'Queer' is another way of saying all/none-of-the-above.
)
Maybe 'Queer' is another way of saying all/none-of-the-above.2 people like this
@Fleura (29108)
• United Kingdom
14 May 21
Yes I did notice that asexual was not offered.
And I agree that celibate is not the same - I guess sexuality is the way you feel but celibacy is the way you behave, whether from choice or circumstances. Not sure what is the opposite of celibacy - lechery??
2 people like this
@Fleura (29108)
• United Kingdom
14 May 21
@mythociate I don't know. Was it Churchill who described the UK and USA as 'two nations divided by a common language'?
2 people like this
@DianneN (246525)
• United States
16 May 21
@Fleura I agree! Life is so crazy now. I watched a series on TV. Supposedly a guy dressed as a girl was on it. I looked the actor up and found out it's really a girl playing a girl. She swings both ways, but refers to herself as a he, she, they. I give up! The whole thing is queer to me. lol
1 person likes this
@m_audrey6788 (58485)
• Germany
14 May 21
I don`t know why they include queer because it means strange or odd. Right? 
1 person likes this
@Fleura (29108)
• United Kingdom
14 May 21
That is the original meaning, but then it started to be used as a sort of slur to describe non-heterosexual people, and then it was 'reclaimed' by certain groups of people to describe themselves. The problem is no-one seems to be able to agree on what that description actually means!
2 people like this
@changjiangzhibin89 (16529)
• China
15 May 21
Before now,I just know by queer it means being strange or difficult to explain.Are you still doing the voluntery work to protect the toads in the evening by the road ?
1 person likes this
@RasmaSandra (73326)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
15 May 21
In my way of thinking queer could also be different or strange from anyone else, In that definition, I could say I am queer because I am totally different from anyone else and still crazy after all these years and loving it, For me, it makes life a lot more fun,
1 person likes this
@JamesHxstatic (29242)
• Eugene, Oregon
15 May 21
I always thought it meant homosexual and it was a definite fighting word when I was in Texas as a kid. Now, it has become a word used with pride by those who adopt it.
1 person likes this
