Queer as a Three Dollar Bill
Queer is a funny word --- or should I say a “queer” word. The first time I made mention of “The Queer Community” in front of an intern I was supervising, her chin about hit the floor and she corrected me to LGBTQ as politely as she could. I got a very different reaction when I causally mentioned to a group of teenage patients that queer was a slur. I think I blew their young minds. They couldn’t imagine the word having any derogatory connotations. Language is fickle and fluid. “Queer” is my word and I love it and embrace it with joy. I am old enough to remember when the word was a filthy slur. It’s a slur that I have had hurled my way long before I came out. Next to the F- slur, queer is probably the one I’ve heard the most. I am also old enough to remember marches in the street where the then GLB chanted “we’re here, we’re queer, get used to it.” I was told “those people” were dangerous deviants who violated God’s laws and threatened to destroy society by corroding its moral virtue. ...