Written by Cecil “Brian” Scantlebury

When the term “Queer’ is used and or brought up to people, they might not understand where it comes from, what it means, or how to use it in a sentence.

The term Queer, comes from the acronym LGBTQ. Queer also had a history of being used as a derogatory term in news papers. Queer was a negative term for gay men that eventually turned positive. When used in newspapers Queer was another way of describing some who is abnormal and or strange. It also was another way of bashing gay men to make them feel bad about their identity.

Queer is an umbrella term. When a person identifies as queer , that means that the person does not want to be described as gay, bisexual, and or lesbian. In other words they do not have a specific orientation.

Some people in the LGBT community may still find the term Queer offensive. You would not want to say “Elizabeth is a Queer”. Instead you should say ” Elizabeth identifies as Queer”. This suggest that people in the queer community may want to be called what they identify as.