Let’s Discuss…About Using The Label “Queer”
Vhagar – you’d know him if you read the riveting piece, The Boy From Jigawa – brings up an issue that I felt was appropriate for a conversation on Kito Diaries.
Check on what he has to say below:
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I don’t know if it’s just me, but I’ve always found the term “queer” to be a little icky.
It’s a bit like the term “nigger” which started as a pejorative slur used by white people to denigrate black people. So also, the term “queer” started as a slur used by homophobes to denigrate homosexuals.
Over time and with the shift of homophobia and racism from the mainstream to the fringes, the terms became idle/less used and those on the receiving ends of these formerly despicable terms have started using it to refer to themselves in an attempt to claim it for themselves.
Anyways, who long talk epp? What do you think about the term Queer (and the term Nigger, if you will)?
Is it a term you accept or despise?
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12 Comments
dreq
September 23, 16:00I still prefer to call myself queer than TB
Pink Panther
September 23, 16:38Lol. TB is a Nigerian slang, not English language
trystham
September 23, 18:19IKR! Sounds WAAAAY beta than tb
trystham
September 23, 18:25Well, only blacks are allowd to call other blacks ‘nigger’. Because of the particularly homophobic environment I find myself in, I describe myself as ‘queer’ or ‘french’ when discussing with other gay guys or ‘enlightened’ folks
Charloxy
September 23, 20:30I prefer it to Homo mbok
Ojukwu Jeff
September 23, 21:03TB sounds very archaic and disgusting so also ‘Faggot/ Fag’ …. I prefer queer or French biko
SageDude
September 24, 20:35I prefer to be call “Happy”.
xoxo
September 24, 23:29Happy????, who haff queer epp… happy just sounds happy
Darkside
September 25, 11:42These words are relics of a dark and unfortunate past. “Straight” suggests that the person so labelled is OKAY. So if you are not straight, you must be “bent” then, is it not? “Queer” means “beyond or deviating from the usual or expected”, so basically its seen as something that is deviant. Can we do anything about this? I doubt it, not in the next 500-1000 years. Be comforted in knowing this: by then we will all be dead and it wont matter. Hehehe!
quinn
September 25, 14:04QUEER! I accept!
Jide
September 25, 15:19When people ask what’s my sexuality, I like to reply, with “I’m not heterosexual”
ogb
September 25, 18:03I still prefer queer to tb or homo…