Difference between "queer people" and "queers"

[Zune]

Hello there! I'm new and I have a question.

Background: I was debating with a colleague on another forum about gay rights. When we were discussing the issue, someone in the thread referred to all gay people as "queers" to strengthen his point. I pointed out that calling a gay person "a queer" was a little bit unnecessary.

Someone else in the thread quickly accused me of being a politically correct Nazi and said that gay people refer to themselves as "queer people" all the time. I pointed out to him that there's a difference between "queers" and "queer people".

When you say "queer", you're saying a slang term meaning homosexual, bi, or a non-straight sexuality. When you say "person", you're referring to a human being. Thus, when you say "queer person", you are describing a human being who happens to be gay.

However, when you drop the "person" and simply refer to a gay person as "a queer", you de-humanize the person and alienate them into a non-human group of "queers". Nobody has that much issue with "queer people", but some have definite issues with queers. Do you see what I'm saying here? It's much like the difference between "black people" and "blacks".

Even after rationalizing my position with this argument, he still told me I was being too uptight and accused me again of being a political correctness Nazi (I'm really not). I could have pressed the issue with him, but doing so past that would be counter-productive. That is why I came here.

Now here comes the question: people of GaySpeak: am I being too uptight? Is there really a difference between calling someone a queer person and a queer? If there is, does it really matter?

[OrphanPip]

No one really says queer person to describe themselves in everyday situations in the gay community.

There is an academic movement centered around "Queer Theory" that tries to reclaim the term, but that use of queer for non-heteronormative people is not commonly used in the gay community, and is not synonymous with gay, like the derogatory term.

Some gay people will use queer or fag to refer to themselves ironically, or in a sense of reclamation, but this is like black people using the n word.

Now, what that leaves us with is queer either being pretentious academic jargon, or a derogatory slur.

[Gabbyboy]

i can't speak for everyone but for me, queer or queer person are the same, and i dont find them offensive, "fag" is offensive. i dont think your uptight at all, you just love debating thats all. good quality in a person i must say.

[Marvinteck]

The PC term would be the LGBT community or gay.

IE. Joe came out of the closet as gay. VS Joe is queer

IE. The passage of same sex marriage in New York was a real victory for the LGBT community.

The term homosexual or queer are not really popular. Neither is faggot..

[OrphanPip]

It should be noted that there are cultural differences as well. Queer used to have the gravitas of faggot back in the 60s and 70s. It is perhaps perceived as less harsh lately because it isn't used as often. I rarely heard queer used in Montreal growing up, so it admittedly doesn't have much sting to it. I'm also accustomed to its academic use from university.

[Zune]

True. "Queer" in and of itself isn't that bad. I just find that calling someone "a queer" kind of singles them out by their sexuality and dehumanizes them. Then again, it didn't really help that the issue was gay marriage and that the person said something to the degree that "queers want nothing more than to undermine the very fabric of our society".

[OrphanPip]

"queers want nothing more than to undermine the very fabric of our society".

The fabric of our society sucks anyway.

[East]

It might indeed be a generational thing. I have never referred to myself as a queer and I do not like the word...it is the same as "faggot" to me. When I hear "Queer Nation, Queer Theory, Queer Person, Queer________" I have no idea who they are referring to but it such as hell doesn't include me. I dislike the term and have no use for it in any capacity. Bottom line...never a good idea to let anyone else define you as an individual.

[jbrowder24]

It might indeed be a generational thing. I have never referred to myself as a queer and I do not like the word...it is the same as "faggot" to me.

I felt the same way, as I'd always heard it in a negative context - until television shows like 'Queer as Folk' and 'Queer Eye for the Straight Guy' came out, confusing my feelings on the matter. So, why wouldn't an average person assume we call ourselves that? But really, I can't say I've ever met someone that said they identify as queer as opposed to gay, bi, lesbian, trans, etc. Still, it does come down to context and it's perhaps more like the N-word.... we can use it and put it in show titles, but it's still offensive for some straight guy to go "those queers need to stop with their marriage agenda" etc.

[Paul1]

I don't like the term.

However let's propose the idea that it is acceptable. Then would the same guy in your debating forum who refers to a man as "a queer" also referrer to a man as "a gay". The syntax itself appears to be derogatory. Such as we would not refer to a black man as "a black" or a disabled person as "a disabled".