“Queer” is a word with an evolving history, and a word whose potential reclamation for the positive is discussed today.
My searching shows that “queer” is of Scottish origin and in 1508 meant “strange, peculiar, eccentric”. That’s how it was defined to me by my dad when I was 11 and he was insulting a pair of men holding hands with one another. Contrary to his negative intention, I was attracted to and bonded with the word and sent my psychic support to the men. There’s the acknowledgment of my bias with the word.
“Queer” was written as a verb in 1812 and meant “to spoil, ruin”, and changed what I think to be a somewhat positive original meaning to an obviously negative one. About 100 years later, around 1935, “queer” began to be used as a noun in replace of “homosexual” and was based off of the verb. This is where the unfortunate history of the word really began.
After making “queer” a synonym for “homosexual”, the word began to take on a variety of slightly different negative meanings. “Mentally unbalanced or deranged” is a nod to homosexuality being treated as a psychiatric disorder until 1973. “Not feeling physically right” and “of questionable character” are two others.
It’s currently a controversial term. Some argue that it has too much negative connotation to be used while others (laregly activists) have been using it as an inclusive word for gay/lesbian/transgender/pansexual/intersex/asexual/other non hetero-normative communities.
My position on the word has remained in support of it, even given its degraded past. What do others think?
A Feminist Theory Dictionary 
I think the meaning of the term ‘queer’ tends to vary depending on geographical context as well. My experience outside of Portland has been that ‘queer’ still carries very negative connotations to many people, whether they identify as queer or not.
I like queer as a verb as well: such as how it’s used in Queer Studies by scholars who have ‘queered’ ideas of biology, for example, by showing gender to be performative, and that biology doesn’t necessarily determine one’s gender. To ‘queer’ something in this sense, to me, means to turn it on its head, to deconstruct it, to question assumed categories in a playful way.
I also like the idea of queer identities: not necessarily in a sexual context but rather as a gender identity. In this way, ‘queer’ can function as an oppositional space for anyone that exists outside of heteronormative sexualities or gender identities. One doesn’t necessarily have to be gay to be queer; in fact, I think that the category ‘queer’ deconstructs categories altogether by calling attention to the mutability of identities as a whole, whether sexual identities or gender identities.
I support the use of queer too, Spooky! I think it helps to describe things (identities, acts, sexualities, etc.) that our language lacks the ability to explain/embrace. But I think in using the term ‘queer’ we need to be cognizant of our locations, and I think this is one of ‘queer’s most interesting aspects: the rich, textural meaning the term has come to embody, especially in a Northwestern context.
well, bananasplitz and i are friends and hail from the same region, but we have different experiences of the word queer. while bananasplitz argues a valid point, that connations change within geographical and it seems, regional contexts, i would go further to say that social/cultural contexts, as well as more specifical geographical contexts, are relevant as well. since we grew up in a republican, conservative, middle class suburban area, i can understand the sense of ‘queer’ carrying a negative connotation, just as much as being ‘asian’ in such an environment could carry an insecure, negative connotation, sadly.
however, in university environments, a specifically social/cultural context, communities tend to be more progressive. therefore, that is relevant.
additionally, when i was living in los angeles, two counties away(?), and pro-actively engaged with a more conscious community in and outside of university context, the connations changed as well.
social/cultural contexts are effected by a person’s interests, choices, activities, lifestyle, social network, etc. therefore, while i was engaged in feminist, queer-friendly, people of color-conscious activity, someone else in the same city or even school or as i encountered apartment, could carry a completely opposite understanding of such terms and identities. becoming a part of a queer-friendly, feminist, progressive community gave me the sense that that ‘queer’ like the term “people of color” were really positive, functional, and inclusive terms that felt proper to use, for the very reasons that bananasplitz stated its use to describe gender identities. identity is not cut and dry.
i meant “specific”…not “specifical” ?? ;P
[…] violence and oppression behind it. It also has a brighter side: Scottish in origin, it meant “strange, peculiar, eccentric.” (Ok, to me this sounds brighter–I SO hear myself in these words.) In looking around on […]
You know why they use the word “Queer” now?
If you have a person who is Transgender, was born a woman but identifies as a male, and he is in a relationship with a woman;
Is he a lesbian because he was born female and is in a relationship with a woman?
Or, is he straight because he identifies as a male and is with a woman?
ORRRRR, Is he Queer? That fits!
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I too have have always heard the word queer as a synonym for, strange, odd, peculiar. Also, as a word to describe various gender non-conforming groups, however, I was recently introduced, if you will to a lady by the name of Anne Lister (1791-1840), who used the word to describe the female genitalia in her diaries, which describe her sexual relationships with women in startling, graphic detail. Anyway, as far as anyone knows, it’s not been used in that way anywhere else.
It’s makes me wonder if somehow the use of the the word to degrade gay men came from the usage of the word queer because female genitalia is, of course, in no way masculine. I also wonder if, because of that, it was, perhaps, the original meaning.
I have have embraced the word queer in connection with the transgender and other such communities, but am still ticked off by the derogatory usage.
Just ran across it in an educational research article about Critical Multicultural Education. I thought it was all negative, so I appreciate what I have read here.
I am wondering where you found the Scottish origins of this word. It would be of help to me in writing a research thesis if you could point me there.