# Can someone explain exactly what queer means



## Yoshisaur (Jan 16, 2016)

My friends don't know what they are talking about and Google confused me. I r uneducate pls fix


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## Mariah (Jan 16, 2016)

I've thought it meant unusual or weird. Like in Nightmare before Christmas, Jack exclaims "How queer!" when he's in Christmas Town.


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## Beardo (Jan 16, 2016)

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=queer

Here you go

If it still doesn't make sense, it used to be a term for a gay man, but now if you're something other than straight/asexual you can just say you're queer


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## seliph (Jan 16, 2016)

Beardo said:


> http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=queer
> 
> Here you go
> 
> If it still doesn't make sense, it used to be a term for a gay man, but now if you're something other than straight/asexual you can just say you're queer



nah its anything that falls under LGBT+, ace is included

anyway i actually really hate that it's become a term for that considering it has been and still is a slur that's commonly used against lgbt people


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## Esphas (Jan 16, 2016)

lol this thread is gay


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## Yoshisaur (Jan 16, 2016)

Mariah said:


> I've thought it meant unusual or weird. Like in Nightmare before Christmas, Jack exclaims "How queer!" when he's in Christmas Town.


Yeah and all these people keep coming out as gay like why you gotta announce that ur happy???


i assumed u were being sarcastic but if not sry for the non serious reply


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## That Zephyr Guy (Jan 16, 2016)

IIRC queer was a term people used to refer to LGBTA people because the term means "not normal"

essentially calling queer people not normal

it's got a new definition now tho

cus that's what languages do


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## Ashtot (Jan 16, 2016)

queer is like peculiar


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## Yoshisaur (Jan 16, 2016)

Esphas said:


> lol this thread is gay


Fake and gay


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## oath2order (Jan 16, 2016)

jinico said:


> nah its anything that falls under LGBT+, ace is included
> 
> anyway i actually really hate that it's become a term for that considering it has been and still is a slur that's commonly used against lgbt people



maybe it's a cultural thing but honestly i have never heard anybody use queer as a slur.

Most people just go for f*g or ****.


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## Yoshisaur (Jan 16, 2016)

Thanks for the help everybody


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## seliph (Jan 16, 2016)

oath2order said:


> maybe it's a cultural thing but honestly i have never heard anybody use queer as a slur.
> 
> Most people just go for f*g or ****.



I heard it a lot in middle + highschool, i guess it just depends where you are? granted I haven't heard it nearly as much as those two.


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## Izzy Reincarnated (Jan 16, 2016)

It means weird or strange


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## ZetaFunction (Jan 16, 2016)

Queer can mean weird or strange, or in certain cases, when used with a sarcastic tone, it can mean someone is gay/lesbian/bi/trans/etc.


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## Shimmer (Jan 16, 2016)

I thought that genderqueer was a different thing from being gay or bi?


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## Kapriznyy (Jan 16, 2016)

Queer was used as a slur a lot more in previous years than it is recently, since there are efforts to reclaim it, but it still is definitely a slur so be mindful of your company if you decide to use that term.


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## Yoshisaur (Jan 17, 2016)

Shimmer said:


> I thought that genderqueer was a different thing from being gay or bi?



Not gender queer but queer in general was what I was asking. I only ever knew it as a slur but now I saw someone say that they were queer but not gay and so I felt slightly confused but alas it's now an umbrella term for everyone who considers to be LGBT+

edit: wow i got some killer run-on sentence skills


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## Izzy Reincarnated (Jan 17, 2016)

Yoshisaur said:


> Not gender queer but queer in general was what I was asking. I only ever knew it as a slur but now I saw someone say that they were queer but not gay and so I felt slightly confused but alas it's now an umbrella term for everyone who considers to be LGBT+



labels are dumb

im me 

あたしはあたし


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## Goth (Jan 17, 2016)

Esphas said:


> lol this thread is gay



Gay jokes that are actually acceptable

also queer was used as an insult in the usa in case people didn't know sometimes it still is but like others I don't like it


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## radical6 (Jan 17, 2016)

oath2order said:


> maybe it's a cultural thing but honestly i have never heard anybody use queer as a slur.
> 
> Most people just go for f*g or ****.



ive been called a queer pretty often, never those slurs though
also im curious why you censor the f slur but not the lesbian one (not beign hostile or anything but im assuming its coz of the filter)

a couple teenage dudes know if they call me the more obvious slurs theyd get their ass kicked at school since its pretty big on no homophobia/transphobia etc, but queer is less known and sometimes teachers dont know its a slur. etc have heard "shes a queer" "thats so queer" etc

happened much more in the olden days


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## Brad (Jan 17, 2016)

I mean, my school has a Queer Resource Center.


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## KaydeeKrunk (Jan 17, 2016)

Queer can mean many things, it can mean weird, unusual, and also can be used an an umbrella term for someone who isn't heterosexual. It can also mean gay specifically, so really it can be used a lot of different ways, I don't consider myself queer but as an umbrella term it would work for me because I am pansexual.


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## StrawberryTiger (Jan 17, 2016)

I thought it meant "weird" and when I used it one time to mean "weird" other people in a chatroom went all haywire because of it and kept saying it was offensive and said it related to calling LGBT people with an offensive term, which was totally new to me.

...So weird .o.


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## Knopekin (Jan 17, 2016)

oath2order said:


> maybe it's a cultural thing but honestly i have never heard anybody use queer as a slur.
> 
> Most people just go for f*g or ****.



In Britain at least, queer is still a much-alive insult. It's complicated, because the popularity of the term 'queer' as an inclusive alternative to the ever-growing LGBTQI+ is growing among young people (in schools and university), but for everyone a bit older, it has a lot of negative connotations. 

As the movie Pride rightly said "there is a tradition in the gay community that if someone gives you a label, you pick it up and you wear it and own it" - which I agree with (lord knows, the word 'lesbian' has been said to me in a derogatory way many, many times), but it gets flung around so much these days, and I'm not 100% comfortable with other people (even other LGBTQ+ folks) labelling me as 'queer', the same way I wouldn't appreciate being called a ****.

Tl;dr: it's complicated, and even the gays don't know.


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## Kittyinpink87 (Jan 17, 2016)

it means like " odd " or " weird" .


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## Trundle (Jan 17, 2016)

I think the word itself is a fun word and I like to use it to describe things that I find odd. Where I live it's actually quite known as something that shouldn't be said.


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## Kapriznyy (Jan 17, 2016)

Knopekin said:


> In Britain at least, queer is still a much-alive insult. It's complicated, because the popularity of the term 'queer' as an inclusive alternative to the ever-growing LGBTQI+ is growing among young people (in schools and university), but for everyone a bit older, it has a lot of negative connotations.
> 
> As the movie Pride rightly said "there is a tradition in the gay community that if someone gives you a label, you pick it up and you wear it and own it" - which I agree with (lord knows, the word 'lesbian' has been said to me in a derogatory way many, many times), but it gets flung around so much these days, and I'm not 100% comfortable with other people (even other LGBTQ+ folks) labelling me as 'queer', the same way I wouldn't appreciate being called a ****.
> 
> Tl;dr: it's complicated, and even the gays don't know.



This! This is what I was getting at when I posted earlier. Thank you for elaborating.
It is indeed complicated, and probably best to go on a case-by-case basis depending on who you're with, if you decide you want to use that word, OP.


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