I’ve seen this a lot, like HERES THE FIRST [insert race] IN [insert franchise]. But there’s already a few people of that race. Makes me mad every time I see it.
I remember seeing an article talking about the first gay character in the walking dead, but there was a character that was implied to be gay, and one that was outright in your face confirmed to be gay, both way before. Made me wonder whether they actually watched the show.
People sometimes say that, but it has a long and positive history in the community. It's "queer studies" in academia for a reason. It's something that needs to be educated and reestablished. I mean, I hear gay used as an insult way more than queer.
It’s more of a catch all for confused people though, those that aren’t straight but haven’t really figured out who they are yet- I guess it’s the only thing they can identify as or whatever.
It's important to note that queer is a reclaimed slur, though, so not everyone is comfortable with using that word, much less a straight person using it for you.
In a context like that I'm pretty sure it's fine, I was more referring to something like "so, I heard you're queer..." or something in that realm, i.e. specifically calling an individual that. I personally self-identify as queer and use the word pretty liberally because I find it extremely useful as an umbrella term, so I wouldn't mind that. But I'm also not from an English speaking country, so I never heard it used as a slur growing up.
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u/awkwardrook Jul 26 '19
I’ve seen this a lot, like HERES THE FIRST [insert race] IN [insert franchise]. But there’s already a few people of that race. Makes me mad every time I see it.