Doomgirl, are you queer?

Why yes.  Yes, I am.

I hate that society takes really cool words and uses them inappropriately and then twists them into something evil or hateful and then we lose use of that word for fear that we will offend the people it was used against.  I truly believe that we have to begin using these words again to take away their negative connotation.  There are some words I just really want to take back!

I was chatting with a co-worker and stated that something was funny.  She asked me “Funny ha-ha or funny queer?”  I said “Funny queer??”  I wanted to know what she meant.  Of course, I did assume that she was asking me if I meant that it made me laugh or if I just thought it was odd.  And I was delighted by her use of the word considering how few people use it anymore.  Apparently she worked with some older men a few years ago that would say that.  “Funny ha-ha or funny queer?”    After this conversation with her…it just made me want to take back the word “queer”.

Queer is actually a great word.  I realize that you can say something is weird or odd or unusual and get the same point across.  But really roll the word “queer” around in your head for a minute.  It just really fits that certain bit of oddity that cannot truly be expressed with any of the other words you can use in it’s place.

It’s weird when my mother uses current slang.  Like when she saw a cute top in a store and out of her 63 year old mouth, tumbled the phrase, “I could rock that”.  I almost fell down laughing.  THAT is weird.  It’s odd when someone does something specifically different from the way everyone else does it, like eating their food in a circle around their plate.  It’s unusual to see a dog walking about on it’s hind legs for no reason.  All those descriptions make sense.  But sometimes…something is so completely out of place or out of the norm or just completely mystifying…that it is just…say it with me…queer.

A long time ago, in a land far, far away, in a world where people were even more scared of what was different than they are now…there were a small group of people who were…[whispers] homosexual.  It was so unusual…it was so strange to us…it was queer.  So someone got the bright idea to call them queer.  Then it became this weird noun.  You could BE a queer.  And then it became this hateful slur that got shouted and said as an insult…because people are stupid and insensitive and fear what they don’t understand.  Thus we lost a lovely word that had a very usable and unique meaning.

Now I mourn the loss of this interesting and useful word and wonder what it would take to bring this word back.  Restore it’s original meaning and put it back into circulation as the fantastic word it was before some idiot perverted it.

Guess what…I am a queer person.  I am not like everyone else and some of my differences are just downright QUEER.  That’s ok with me.

Queer.  Use it in a sentence.  Use it in a conversation with someone.  Let’s bring it back.  Let’s stop the abuse of the English language.  One neato word at a time.