Verified answer

i don't see a clear advantage or disadvantage for either one. i think it's more a matter of personal preference. "queer" is shorter and easier to say than "lgbt", and i think it also holds more radical connotations as well; it is a good example of taking a perjorative term and reclaiming it and owning it, so to speak.

I think its because the label was used by others largely in a negative context. Its the reason why alot of black people do not like it that the label '***___' is used in a favorable light amongst the youth of today in the black race. You may call each other queer, but the label even used in a favorable light is offensive to others who had to endure that label in a negative way. The other labels you used may be wordy and voluminous, but they do not usually have the same negative feeling attached to them. Much like Afro-American is more wordy....but much less offensive.

I think it's for the same reason that people who are citizens of America want to celebrate their heritage - for example, African American, Italian American, etc.

On the other hand, I think the GLBT label is to be more inclusive than queer.. I think politically correct people want to make sure that all sexual minorities are mentioned and acknowledged.

Personally... I read an article a few years ago written by Chastity Bono, Sonny and Cher's gay daughter, in some anniversary edition of the GLBT mag "The Advocate"... she says that in the future, we should all be called Fuchsian. Not pink for the pink triangle, not purple like the Teletubbie, just Fuchsian.

That's how I think of myself, since I don't really fit into any category at the moment. (Not that there's anything wrong with that!)

Well, Queer doesnt specifically mean Lesbian, Gay, Bisesexual and Transgender, but means not joining/following the mainstream.

e.g.: You paint a contemporer picture/painting that not everybody can understand what you're drawing, it already means queer. or perhaps u have your own style of dressing, that's queer.

moreover, to avoid wordiness, people tend to use abbreviation LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual/Transgender)

So why they still use LGBT, insted of Queer? because they want to be specifically mentioned or differentianted.

Thank you

Naka /\/

Um, I'm not a 100% sure on this because I've never looked it up but I think the word "Queer" actually means "awkward" or "Uneven" or something like that. You should go online to Websters Dictionary and look it up but it was created as a derogatory term for gays, I know that much. It's like a woman being called a hag or *****, it's just inappropriate and becuz so many people are slang sensitive these days, we have to stay PC. Ya know?

The bisexual and transgendered folks I know don't consider themselves "queer," specifically, although part of the LBGT community, which some call the queer community.

It's semantics, I know. I guess people can call themselves whatever they want.

cuz that's not what queer means. queer means (in a more negative way) odd, strange, unordinary, etc. using Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered is the politically right way to define those type of people with out being rood. queer is a derogatory term for gays.

I agree. Queer would be better -- it also doesn't open up the forum for attacks from the scumbags who are so miserable in their lives that they see the word "gay" and need to take our their hate for themselves on all of us.

Also, it would hinder real users from asking questions.

So.... I guess I don't know! Real users win, which is why it's probably still labeled as it is.

Queer, historically is a negative term for odd. See definition:

"Since its emergence in the English language in the 16th century (related to the German quer, meaning 'across, at right angle, diagonally or transverse'), queer has generally meant 'strange', 'unusual', or 'out of alignment'. It might refer to something suspicious or 'not quite right', or to a person with mild insanity or who exhibits socially inappropriate behavior. The expression 'in Queer Street' was used in the UK as of the 1811 edition of Francis Grose's A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue for someone in financial trouble. It gained its implication of sexual deviance (especially that of homosexual and/or effeminate males) in the late 19th century; an early recorded usage of the word in this sense was in a letter by John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry to his son Lord Alfred Douglas.

Subsequently, for most of the 20th century, 'queer' was frequently used as a derogatory term for effeminate and/or gay males, and others exhibiting non-traditional gender behavior."

When my Mother referred to a person as being "queer", she meant that the person was just a little odd and had nothing to do with gay, which by the way, if she used the word gay describing someone, she meant a happy person, good natured.

My how things are going down hill. Pops