Why “queer”? Or, What is GLBTQQIAPA?
We occasionally get asked why we use the word queer in our organization name and tagline. Some of our supporters are afraid that others may find it offensive. Frankly, some do.
We struggled–for a while–with a name for our group that is descriptive of us and our mission, that was inclusive, and that didn’t repeat or mimic a name already in use by other groups.
Programming to the queer and queer-supportive community includes a lot of “alphabet soup”. To be complete and accurate, we’d need to include all of these words to describe the whole community:
- Gay
- Lesbian
- Bisexual
- Transgender
- Queer
- Questioning
- Intersex
- Asexual
- Pansexual
GLBTQQIAP (or, GLBTQQIAPA if you tack ally onto the end.) Whew! This makes our name, website, and marketing quite difficult to explain. And what’s worse, is that every few years, another letter is added as another sub-culture is defined. And with those additions, our name would change frequently, thereby killing annual marketing efforts for events like the GAYla–never mind causing us to have to change our website name on a regular basis.
Additionally, in this community, we have a large population who are only at the first/initial stage of understanding queer culture. They might be able to get their brain around gay and lesbian. At this early stage of learning, bisexual can be a confusing term. And then they are lost on the rest of the words. (Remember, not all of our supporters have been through Aggie ALLIES training.) It’s just too much all at once…and certainly can’t be explained in a 30-second Public Service Announcement advertising our fundraiser.
Mainstream and pop culture gave us the answer. We noticed several flavors of “Queer Eye…” makeover shows, “Queer As Folk”, and other programming that used the word queer. In high schools and on college campuses across the country, most student organizations are named “Queer Straight Alliance” or something very similar. We also found dominant use of the word on the Internet.
Of course, we realized that our area can be a little behind the times of mainstream culture, so we asked around. We took an informal survey of ~15 people we knew to be active in the community. The vast majority preferred the word queer (as opposed to GLBT…). Those who didn’t care for the word queer also didn’t have other suggestions beyond GLBT…
The most all-encompassing word is queer. While used as a derogatory term in the 70s and 80s, the GLBTQQIAPA community has “taken back” this word in the same way that many women have taken vagina.
So, while we wait for the English language to catch up to our social cultures, we are
Brazos Valley QueSt
On a QueSt to Unite Our Queer/Straight Community