I have a couple of questions that I'm hoping LGBTQ DUers can help me with.

[brush]

The acronym LGBT has now become LGBTQ.

Do you know how this came about, How it evolved from the slur it once was, how is it differentiated from the word "gay" and are there any prohibitions or protocol as to who can and can't use the Q-word?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

1. "Queer," like other slurs, has been reclaimed by those who used to be labeled with it; this started

around the time Queer Nation got going, so early 90s? It's usually best to let people self-identify with terms you don't fully understand, and to avoid using it as a slur yourself.

[brush]

7. Thanks for the info.

[Kali]

2. I think it means Questioning, doesn't it?

edit, looking briefly it can mean both and sometimes there are 2 Qs and a number of other letters standing for other variations of gender expression.

[backtoblue]

3. That's what I thought

[Eliot Rosewater]

4. That is what I thought

As to the "Q" word, these things are really simple for me.

If a black person wants to use the N word and given it's history says I shouldn't, then I dont.

If a gay person wants to use the Q word and given it's history says I shouldn't, then I dont.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

5. Different people/groups will accept one or both.

[Kali]

6. got it on the edit

[sdfernando]

9. Yep...the Q is for questioning

[TexasTowelie]

8. Actually it has become

LGBTQIA+ which also includes intersexuals and asexuals.

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/understanding-all-letters-lgbtqia-acronym

[brush]

10. Thank you. That web site is very helpful.

[Ms. Toad]

11. Unless Queer has been (or could be used against you),

or you claim it for yourself, don't use it.

How it came about, at least at an organization level, was through lots of deep conversations and over the objections particularly of older LGBT individuals. It took the organization I went through the process with about 3 years, with younger LGBT and nonbinary individuals insistent that Queer more accurately described them - and older LGBT individuals still stinging from a lifetime of it being used as a weapon.

In our group, the watershed moment was an older straight wife of a gay man whose peer group is largely the LGBT community declaring that including Queer in the name was important to her because if she wasn't Queer, she didn't know what that word meant - and didn't have a home in our group.

[brush]

12. Good informaton. Thank you.