From an expert witness statement prepared by Stephen Green for Raj Bhachoo
in the Camberwell Green Magistrates Court 7th March 2012
1 USE OF THE WORD ‘QUEER’
My research indicates that a growing number perhaps of younger or more radical homosexuals are rejecting the word ‘gay’ as being too restrictive, too pejorative and too establishment. By using the word ‘queer’ instead, they reclaim it and act in what they see as a more assertive manner. To develop these lines of thought:
Firstly they say the word ‘gay’ is too restrictive and does not encompass, as they see it, the whole spectrum of human sexuality.
Secondly they say the word ‘gay’ has pejorative overtones on the street, where young people use it as an insult, as in ‘your coat / hat / shoes / hair is so gay’. ‘Queer’, they say, does not suffer from such negative usage.
Thirdly they say that use of the word ‘queer’ is an assertive act which carries an ‘in your face’ attitude
Fourthly, they say that the word ‘queer’ challenges both society at large and those homosexuals who are too comfortable being just ‘gay’ and working within an increasingly ‘gay-friendly’ establishment.
Fifthly, they say that to regard ‘queer’ as an offensive word is too simplistic. If that word can be used as an insult, how much more are expressions like ‘gay boy’ or ‘lezzie’ used as insults?
Whether to use the word ‘queer’ or not boils down, according to an opponent of the word in an argument in Socialist Review July August 2010, merely to a matter of strategy. He even uses the word himself.
There are now ‘Queer Studies’, ‘Queer Theory’ and ‘Queer Politics’ at an academic level. Valerie Lehr has published a book entitled ‘Queer Family Values’ subtitled ‘debunking the myth of the nuclear family’.
The University of California Santa Barbara, in a ‘Queer Studies’ book and resource list, cites thirty-seven (37) positive occurrences of the word ‘queer’.
In an article on his website claiming that ‘straight’ men can learn from homosexuals, Peter Tatchell, a homosexual activist widely respected in ‘gay rights’ circles, uses the word ‘queer’ no fewer than twenty (20) times each time in a positive light. Shorter versions of the article were published in ‘The Guardian’ and ‘The Tribune’.
The University of Cambridge hosts an annual conference entitled ‘Queer People’ at Christ’s College. The conference has been running since 2007 and is now in its sixth year. One of the two organisers, Dr Caroline Gonda, has co-authored a book entitled ‘Queer People: Negotiations and Expressions of Homosexuality 1700-1800’.
A popular American television programme was called ‘Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’ in 2003 before changing its name simply to ‘Queer Eye’ in 2005.
An establishment describing itself as ‘an exclusive gay lifestyle cafe bar’ in the Manchester ‘Gay Quarter’ calls itself simply ‘Queer’.
The UK’s national Lesbian / Gay / Bisexual / Transgender (LGBT) Youth Organisation operates a website with the domain name www.queeryouth.org.uk and describes itself as ‘Queer Youth Network’.
A comparable US website has the domain name www.queerattitude.com.
On its own website (www,stonewall.org.uk), Stonewall itself lists books with these titles:
On a page adnmitting the violence which exists in homosexual relationships, Stonewall also lists a book published by the ‘Queer Press Collective’.
It quotes an ‘Area Youth Worker’ who wants ‘to develop a provision specifically for lesbian, gay and bisexual young people and those who identify as trans or queer (LGBTQ)’.
Stonewall also list a website with the domain name ‘www.queery.org.uk’ and (firstly on a page about bullying and then on a ‘signposting’ page) the ‘Queer Youth Network’ (qv)
I doubt if I have but scratched the surface of the positive use of the word ‘queer’ in homosexual circles, and I conclude that Stonewall activists are being disingenuous by giving the impression that the word ‘queer’ is a pejorative term in today’s climate, or at the very least, any more pejorative than ‘gay’.
