“Liberating words from non-affirming religious clinical or colloquial contexts and giving them our own meaning is one of the defining characteristics of LGBTQIA+ history” – Dr Timothy Jones
From its first uses to relate to peculiarity and oddity as early as 1513, the term ‘queer’ has seen a reclamatory revolution typical of the LGBTQIA+ community, transforming it into a powerfully inclusive identity standing in opposition to homophobia and transphobia, as well as rigid labels of sexual orientation and gender identity. But how did this come to be?
The term’s first appearance can be found in the ‘Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie’ – a Scottish poetic war of words. At this time, the term had no relation to sexuality, and was only synonymous for strangeness and a curious appearance.
The first use of ‘queer’ as a slur against gay men saw its emergence in 1895 alongside Oscar Wilde’s trial. Sir John Sholto Douglas (the ninth Marquis of Queensbury), in a letter which was read aloud in court, expressed his disgust at Wilde’s relationship with his son – Lord Alfred Douglas – and addressed Wilde and his contemporaries as “snob queers”. Following these events, other terms such as ‘crooked’, ‘bad’ and ‘other’ became synonyms for ‘queer’. However, although used as a slur by those outside the community, it’s important to note that ‘queer’ was also used as an identifier in-group as early as the beginning of the 20th century.
Despite the uses of the term by the LGBTQIA+ community, activists made a conscious effort to reclaim ‘queer’ from external anti-gay-rights groups. With the term moving across to America, and with New York’s Stonewall Riots in 1969 marking the beginning of the gay rights movement in the US, members of the community began publicly using the word as an act of defiance in the face of police violence. This soon projected into becoming a badge of courage with the aids epidemic in the 1980s.
‘Queer’ underwent another evolution in meaning in the 1990s. With the founding of ‘Queer Nation’, streets were flooded with signs with the writing ‘We’re here. We’re queer. Get used to it’. In this moment, ‘queer’ was no longer a synonym for homosexuality; instead, it became a political identity, challenging mainstream views of sexuality and gender. The work of these activists inspired a shift in the arts, academia, and culture, and their legacy includes influencing the development of queer theory. Here, being ‘queer’ is about “defining ourselves; [it’s] about gender-fuck and secrets, what’s beneath the belt and deep inside the heart, it’s about the night”. Soon enough, academics began using the term with intention to interrupt the binary understandings of power and broaden their focus to include the intersection of gender, sexuality, race, and class.
Social media and frequent activism further questioned institutions’ heterocentric culture. Today, it is has been assimilated into the community’s lexicon and is used as an umbrella term for anyone who identifies as non-heterosexual or non-cisgender. ‘Queer’ reminds us today of the diversity of our communities, as well as the oppression that the queer community has withstood over time and, undeniably, still today.