Transgenders

[Buzzer]

(Adam) I have a friend who's third gender and also hates the "genderqueer" label -- I agree, it sounds disrespectful and I think it trivializes third gender and makes it seem less legitimate.

I am uncomfortable with it as well. Unfortunately there is a certain insularity to things like "Queer Studies" and such in academia where they'll come up with these terms that just make us sound like absolute freakshows if we try to go out and use them in everyday speech with people who did not write dissertations on gender identity or alternate sexuality and don't have 6 transgendered best friends. I would certainly need a pretty strong drink before I could ever walk up to someone and say "Hey I'm a queersexual cisgendered male.."

I understand, conceptually, the idea of "reclaiming" a term like Queer and owning it as our own instead of letting others own it as a slur, but I still regard it as a highly derogatory term and unattractive group name, synonymous with strange, weird, bizarre, etc., and I would cringe at anyone using it as a label for me, even another gay person. I'm okay with others wanting to label themselves any way they like but a group with "queer" in its title will pretty much put me off straightaway and I'd definitely refuse to use the term to group myself if asked to do so.

[Humeinator2]

I don't think it's such a bad word, since Queer means, by definition, something out of the ordinary
I have more than a few friends who have a friend that calls themselvs genderqueer (I just found out from two about theirs, might be the same person the'yre talking about, the way they discribed the person, and I've know of the other two for a while, I just never quite understood what they meant, and they never explained... "You wouldn't understand" they said
Boy, where they wrong)
But the saying, "To each their own" comes to play here huh?
I'm going with Gender Neutral myself

[Miles]

If I offended anyone I apologize. I only brought up the term since I've seen a number of people online apply it to themselves. I can't say I would ever be willing to use it myself. I've been trying to wrap my head around a lot of these things so feel free to correct me if I say something stupid.

[Buzzer]

If I offended anyone I apologize. I only brought up the term since I've seen a number of people online apply it to themselves. I can't say I would ever be willing to use it myself.

Oh no we were just discussing the term, it's definitely out there, it's not as though you created it. I don't think anyone was offended.

[Uneunsae]

No offense taken.

Although, the Internet is not a reliable source for this kind of thing IMO. Go to any site where teens and 20-somethings hang out, especially nerds or anime fans, and every other person will identity themselves as "genderqueer" thus minimizing the concept of those of us who are honestly non-binary and also transgender and transsexuals. It's not something one does for fun or to "be different". On the contrary, it's a very difficult life that one is born into.

I'm the one that must apologize for my own personal bias. Genderqueer is the new goth/emo/whatever thing (on the Internet).

[Buzzer]

No offense taken.

Although, the Internet is not a reliable source for this kind of thing IMO. Go to any site where teens and 20-somethings hang out, especially nerds or anime fans, and every other person will identity themselves as "genderqueer" thus minimizing the concept of those of us who are honestly non-binary and also transgender and transsexuals. It's not something one does for fun or to "be different". On the contrary, it's a very difficult life that one is born into.

I'm the one that must apologize for my own personal bias. Genderqueer is the new goth/emo/whatever thing (on the Internet).

"I'm too much of a special snowflake and far too complex to be thought of as JUST a girl/guy...." (Though I was born and live as one.) That type?

[Aike]

In defense of the word "queer", I think it works as a kind of an umbrella term comprising all sorts of categories, which differ from the usual male/female gender binary and strict heterosexuality. If I use it, it is for this practical purpose (and mostly in an academic context). I agree that it doesn't work well in everyday language. But maybe that could change?

I would certainly need a pretty strong drink before I could ever walk up to someone and say "Hey I'm a queersexual cisgendered male.."

I find it ironic that people who attack the standard gender and sexuality labels end up with these kind of ultra-technical labels. It's as if the problem is not essentialism etc. but only that labels such as "male", "female", "gay" or "straight" aren't specific enough.

[matty7]

ive watched frank Maloney put on boxing matches and im so happy or him he can now be who he want to be - just wish he could have made that choice 30 or even more years earlier , but at least he is accepted now - even through the press !!!! I would have sworn they would have wanted to destroy him just to make a headline ,,