The Real Queer Eye

I haven't forgotten about Twiddly's question. Honestly, I was hoping no one would press me to talk about the difference between queer and gay/lesbian. I was gonna just ignore the question. But then I read today's word-of-the-day* and understood it was my fate to struggle with that question right here for all you all to see.

In case you didn't know Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 7 was:

homonym \HAH-muh-nim\ noun
1 : homophone
2 : homograph
3 : one of two or more words spelled and pronounced alike but different in meaning

Did you ever notice that "homo" was in the word homonym?

And you may ask, what homonym praytell could compell me to the discussion at hand? And I say to you, the word is "queer."

Now, for much of America the word queer has one and only one meaning. Odd. And not odd as in unique or special. At its' most benign the meaning is akin to Webster's definition: differing in some odd way from what is usual or normal. But walk onto any third grade playground and you'll get the real meaning we all grow up with. Odd as in you-can't-play-with-us-you-sissy. Odd as in I'm-gonna-shove-your-head-into-this-toilet-where-it-belongs-you-faggot. Odd as in you-fucking-dyke-I'll-show-you-how-a-real-woman-takes-it-up-the-cunt. In other words, any person in their right mind would think twice before proclaiming "Hello world. I'm a big fabulous queer!" This is often true of folks in the lesbian and gay community as well, particularly folks of my generation or older. Lots of gays and lesbians want nothing to do with the word queer since it has generally been used to oppress us and harassss us and brand us as societal outcasts.

But there are those among us who wear our queerness on our sleeves nonetheless.

Some of you may not know that this month of June is the month that gay, lesbian, bi, trans and allied folks celebrate our pride and commemorate our struggles in parades and celebrations all around the world. The 1969 rebellion at the Stonewall Inn in New York City is commonly attributed to be the moment the tide turned and the queers fought back en masse. Often thought to be just a skirmish between a bunch of nelly queens and some good old boy cops, iactualityty the riots spanned over three sperate nights and at one point involved up to 2000 angry queers and over 400 police officers. And when I say queers, I mean queers. Bull dykes. Drag queens. Flaming fags. Transgender folk(before the word transgender was in the popular lexicon). Queers.

Eventually the police sent in a riot-control squad that had originally been trained to counter Vietnam War protesters. So, what do the queers do when faced with a row of armed cops in full riot gear? They start throwing rocks and bottles and flipping over patrol cars. Then they got really serious: they faced off the cops with a chorus line and started to sing:

We are the Stonewall girls
We wear our hair in curls
We wear no underwear
We show our pubic hair
We wear our dungarees
Above our nelly knees!

Now if that isn't fabulously queer I don't know what is.

*I started drafting this post on June 7th, when homonym really was the word of the day.