Queer

Critics of the term include members of the LGBT community who associate it more with its colloquial, derogatory usage;[8] those who wish to dissociate themselves from queer radicalism;[9] and those who see it as too amorphous or trendy.

An early recorded usage of the word in this sense was in an 1894 letter by John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry, as read aloud at the trial of Oscar Wilde.

[18][19] Queer was used in mainstream society by the early 20th century, along with fairy and faggot, as a pejorative term to refer to men who were perceived as flamboyant.

In his book Gay New York, Chauncey noted that queer was used as a within-community identity term by men who were stereotypically masculine.

[20] None of the terms, whether inside or outside of the subculture, equated to the general concept of a homosexual identity, which only emerged with the ascension of a binary (heterosexual/homosexual) understanding of sexual orientation in the 1930s and 1940s.

[20] Similar to the earlier use of queer, gay was adopted by many U.S. assimilationist men in the mid-20th century as a means of asserting their normative status and rejecting any associations with effeminacy.

[...] Younger men found it easier to forget the origins of gay in the campy banter of the very queens whom they wished to reject.

For some it means strange and eccentric and kind of mysterious [...] And for others "queer" conjures up those awful memories of adolescent suffering [...] Well, yes, "gay" is great.

[26] By identifying themselves as queer rather than gay, LGBT activists sought to reject causes they viewed as assimilationist, such as marriage, military inclusion and adoption.

[4] This radical stance, including the rejection of U.S. imperialism,[4] continued the tradition of earlier lesbian and gay anti-war activism, and solidarity with a variety of leftist movements, as seen in the positions taken at the first two National Marches on Washington in 1979 and 1987, the radical direct action of groups like ACT UP, and the historical importance of events like the Stonewall riots.

The radical queer groups following in this tradition of LGBT activism contrasted firmly with "the holy trinity of marriage, military service and adoption [which had] become the central preoccupation of a gay movement centered more on obtaining straight privilege than challenging power.

"[4] Commentators such as Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore have argued that it was exactly these "revolting queers" (who were now being pushed aside) who had made it safe for the assimilationists to now have the option of assimilation.

Sociologist Morgan Holmes and bioethicists Morgan Carpenter and Katrina Karkazis have documenting a heteronormativity in medical rationales for the surgical normalization of infants and children born with atypical sex development, and Holmes and Carpenter have described intersex bodies as queer bodies.

This has been criticized by some LGBTQ people, who argue that queer can only be reclaimed by those it has been used to oppress: "A straight person identifying as queer can feel like choosing to appropriate the good bits, the cultural and political cachet, the clothes and the sound of gay culture, without ... the internalized homophobia of lived gay experience.

Philosopher Judith Butler has described queer theory as a site of "collective contestation", referring to its commitment to challenging easy categories and definitions.

[41] Critics of queer theory argue that this refusal of straightforward categories can make the discipline overly abstract or detached from reality.

Puar, a queer theorist of color, specifically coined the term homonationalism to refer to the perceived rise of American exceptionalism, nationalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy within the gay community, catalyzed in response to the September 11 attacks.

[44][46][47] Adherents of queer nationalism support the notion that the LGBT community forms a distinct people due to their unique culture and customs.

Queercore (originally homocore) is a cultural and social movement that began in the mid-1980s as an offshoot of punk expressed in a do-it-yourself style through zines, music, writing, art and film.

[48][49] The term queer migration is used to describe the movement of LGBTQ people around the world often to escape discrimination or ill treatment due to their orientation or gender expression.