Thread by @SecretGamerGrrl

I really don't want to jump to conclusions but I'm pretty darn sure an increasing amount of the feedback this thread is getting today is coming from the teens that undercover fascists have been spreading the lie that queer is a slur to.

And I have to keep reminding myself I do

https://twitter.com/SecretGamerGrrl/status/1407293938193649672

have enough followers that I'm going to see the statistical outliers leaving comments, but for real kids. I am like twice your age, and the usage of "queer" as a slur was already basically extinct before I was born, and never had any magical extra hateful connotation that isn't

still present when people use "gay" derisively.

The only reason to find one more offensive than the other is if you consider being any of the other various identities under the umbrella to be objectively worse things than being gay, and it is, in fact, not OK to think that.

And if you have people telling you that older people consider it a very bad word to ever use, far more likely than not, you are hearing that from fascists, who are actively trying to pull some divide and conquer crap on you.

There were indeed people who referred to themselves as

"lesbians" in the '70s who would take violent offense to the notion of lesbians falling under the greater queer umbrella because back then rather than calling themselves "gender critical" they called themselves "political lesbians." And they didn't want people to think that meant

they were actually women who were into women, finding the concept to be quite repulsive. Because again, queerphobic fascists appropriating and attempting to redefine a term.

Alienating such people is one of the reasons you should be trying to say "queer" over "LGBTQIA+" etc.

And again, to be super super clear, definitely not accusing anyone of acting in bad faith or anything. Mainly it's just that education on general queer history is virtually non-existent so it's easy to get bad info is the whole issue.