Let's talk about the word "queer." Maybe you've used it to describe yourself or maybe you've heard a friend use it and secretly been like, "Wait. WTF does that mean?" To decode this 5-letter word, we asked 5 LGBTQ+ young people and GLAAD Campus Ambassadors to tell us what the word *queer* means to them.
Labels Can Be Tricky... And That's Where"Queer" Comes In
To start, sometimes finding the right label can be hard. High school is all about figuring out who you are and what you like, and pressuring yourself to find the right label the first time around is a lot to ask. "I think probably the hardest thing for me when I came out in high school was not knowing what label to use," activist theater performer Rowan Hepps Keeney said.
For activist and performer Leah Juliett, a big part of being queer is ~not~ having a hard definition. "I can exist in the gray areas," they said. "I can be undefined, and that is okay."
So What Does "Queer" Actually Mean?
According to LGBTQ+ media advocacy organization GLAAD, "queer" is "an adjective used by some people whose sexual orientation is not exclusively heterosexual." Also: "Typically, for those who identify as queer, the terms lesbian, gay, and bisexual are perceived to be too limiting and/or fraught with cultural connotations they feel don't apply to them."
*Queer* Is A Beautiful Catch-All for LGBTQ+ People
If you're not sure about a label, that's where an umbrella term like queer can come in handy. "We all had that experience in high school, when we so desperately wanted a community to identity with, and so much of that was finding a label that fit perfectly," Rowan said. "But the more we realized that gender and sexuality were all pretty much made up and a lie, we are just kinda like, 'None of these words really fit, so we're just gonna go under this umbrella of queer.'"
Queer can be used to describe both sexual and gender identity, as Nicole Scrivano, marriage and family therapist, explained in a blog post. "As queer women, we come in a variety forms, identities, and belief systems," she said. "Some of these identities are within sexuality identities of bisexual, lesbian, gay, pansexual, etc. Some of these identities are within gender: transgender, cisgender, nonbinary, femme, genderflexible, etc."
Queer = Community = <3
One awesome thing about being queer is the amazing community that comes with it. "Knowing that ultimately being a part of the queer community means more than any other label, would have really helped me a lot in high school," Rowan said.
In The End, Know That A Label Doesn't Define You
If you do decide on a label that feels right to you, also know that you define that label on your own terms. GLAAD Rising Stars grant recipient C. Mandler said: "There are a lot of connotations surrounding what it means to be trans. Do you have to have hormone replacement therapy? Do you have to have surgery? Do you have to change your name? There is no right or wrong way to be trans."
Leah agreed, saying that you set the rules for your identity. "You can embrace the ambiguity and fluidity of sexuality. You don't have to know exactly who or what you are, and that's okay."
Watch our video about the meaning of the word ~queer~ here:
As the digital deputy editor of Seventeen, I help our site director oversee content on the site and across all of our social media platforms. In 2013, I published a DIY book for beginners called InstaCraft (Ulysses Press). In 2015, I served as a jewelry designer for The Jewelry Recipe Book (Artisan). Before coming to Seventeen, I held positions at The New Yorker, Allure, Every Day with Rachael Ray, Reader's Digest and BuzzFeed.
