THE WORD IS WEIRD

In the beginning was the word and the word was weird.

In the end is the word and the word is still, well, weird.

But between the beginning and the end, we have used so many words to describe ourselves as queers and what we are trying to say is we are seriously strange.

We are weird in every way imaginable, sexually, spiritually, statistically weird. Our biologies, our psychologies, our neurologies diverge from the normal, the typical. We are odd, abnormal, unusual, and when we are really good at being weird, we can be called unique.

Over the years, we have had so many words used to describe our weirdness, and we have used so many expressions to describe our experience.

We are inverted, perverted, peculiar, bizarre; we are quite simply and utterly unequivocally queer.

Queer is a word with which to conjure, it has own magic, but then so too does weird. It was a word used to describe sorcerers and shaman, priestesses and prophets. It was a word to describe witches back when you could be burnt for your beliefs. And in these modern times far from medieval origins, weird can still be used to describe someone touched as if by magic, or as it was once known, madness.

So the question remains, how weird are you?  What words do you to conjure your own particular magic?

Part 2

The LGBTIQ community holds a unique place in modern politics. It could be argued that it isn’t a community in conventional terms but a coalition of communities. It could be suggested that they are not necessarily like-minded communities but ones that are similarly situated.

It could even be stated that we are as much defined by what we are as what we are not, and that is, we are non-heteronormative, denying traditional historical appraisals of sexuality and gender, essentially how weird we are.

The LGBTIQ community is one so diverse, it has struggled to define itself. Literally. We don’t have the convenience of an all-encompassing, unambiguous name to embrace our many aspects. For a community that has placed such emphasis on identity, we have struggled to identify ourselves.

Of course, we use the word Pride which we stole from other struggles and Rainbow which refers to our rainbow flag, itself a coalition of colours that has inspired several other iterations, themselves articulating diversity.

Beyond that, the English language appears unable to accommodate us and has devised an acronym to describe us rather than single word category: LGBTIQ. This brand name, if you will, is often criticised as clumsy, unpronounceable, impractical, which is convenient if you are harbouring certain prejudices towards the other letters in the acronym.

But you can’t deny the inherent diversity of the LGBTIQ community, it is hard baked into the name which insists on equality, visibility and recognition: L for lesbian, G for gay, Bi for bisexual, T for trans, I for intersex, Q is for queer. There are worlds within these words, but not one word can carry these worlds.

So the question remains, how weird are you?  What words do you to conjure your own particular magic?

Part 3

Every queer that you know, every queer here tonight is a remarkable act of self-invention, of self-imagining, of self-creation. We have literally uttered ourselves into existence, built ourselves into being through the power, the magic of words. From the very start, we used words to invite recognition, and we still use those words to invoke our power.

We cannot be who we are until we announce ourselves, find words to describe ourselves, and that declaration is called coming out. Most identities do not require identification, most experiences do not require explanation, but that’s how fundamentally weird we are. We must continually call ourselves to account, label ourselves and wear those labels like and medals.

In short, each one of us has had to conjure words to describe ourselves, has used language to bring ourselves to light and to life.

So the question remains, how weird are you?  What words do you to conjure your own particular magic?

What words do you use as part of your own personal incantation?

gay

lesbian

bisexual

trans

intersex

queer

camp

bent

same-sex

homoerotic

sapphic

dyke

drag

poofter

lemon

pink

homosexual

homophiler

queen

shemale

sapphic

butch

bear

twink

faggot

femme

transgender

invert

bisexual

fairy

les

sodomite

nancy

fruit

bugger

pansy

swish

lavender

ponce

batty boy

bumboy

knob jockey

carpet muncher

turd burgler

cock sucker

fudge packer

muff diver

flamer

shirt lifter

pillow biter

arse bandit

clm smasher

gash gobbler

andrgyne

hermaphrodite

bear cub

gaylord

homo

minge muncher

mo

nelly

sister

QUEER