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[–]Horror-SwordfishI don't get how flairs work 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

This article highlights one of the main reasons why I don't like the term "queer:" it has no meaning whatsoever.

If you can lump a gay man, a trans "lesbian," a demisexual teen girl, and a married straight woman with three kids who kissed a girl once in college under the same term, it's not a helpful term to use! As a gay man, if I went to a meeting specifically for gay men only (and not trans men), I would expect that we would all have at least one thing in common with each other. If I went to a meeting for "queer people," there's a good possibility that there wouldn't be another gay man there.

Human like to categorize each other because it's sometimes helpful to do that. As a different example, I'm a fan of hiking. If I want to find a group of people to hike with, I'm going to go looking for "hikers" rather than "outdoor enthusiasts" because the second could include people who like to fish, bird watchers, campers, people who like to skinny dip in lakes, etc.

But then, I guess it's nice and easy to just say you're "queer" and get the brownie points, especially since it's a cardinal sin to ask anyone to prove what they're saying these days.