Letter to the editor,
As a queer woman, I find myself utterly confused by [the article] “Queer Should Not Be Reclaimed” [from the March 14 article from The Lamron]. While I would like to give the author the benefit of the doubt, the piece not only overlooks the vast history of reclamation the word has within their own community, but fails to address the word’s importance within some transgender spaces with the term “genderqueer,” or queer as a bridge between “non-normative” gender and sexuality.
The article erroneously attributes its reclamation era to 1998, when reclamation of queer began in the 1980s (if one can even make a claim at large about when a minority group that had to stay off-record for fear of their safety started doing anything) making me doubt the historical accuracy of the piece.
It also insinuates that queer is “as offensive as the n-word.” One, if we’re saying one word and suggesting the other, I think we know which one is worse. Two, this unintentionally but offensively suggests that a white author’s opinions on what words black people can use, matters.
I will never advocate for the use of the word queer as an identifier for the community due to people’s discomfort with it, and that is fine. But this is a two-way street. You do not dictate what identities I align with in order to adhere to your own set of respectability politics.
I’m queer. And I really shouldn’t have to defend my identity to someone within one of “the most welcoming communities in society today.”
-Psychology major junior Jessica Bansbach