A Curious Eye

aglitteryfool:

justjasper:

• straight allies are not queer
• straight kinksters are not queer
• straight trans folk are not queer
• straight asexuals are not queer

this fact does not mean the issues of queer people (including queer trans/asexual people) and straight trans/asexual people do not intersect at all or that our…

I think this very heavily depends on how you define and use the word queer. I’m very much recognizing that I come from a place of academic privilege that has very little basis in common language, but the way I use the word (as a form of praxis stemming from queer theory) straight allies, straight kinksters, straight trans/asexual people can be queer if they so choose to think and act accordingly.

And even so, I can see how queer can still be applied to those people if you see it as meaning non-normative sexualities (again if they so choose), though more applicable with straight kink/asexual and not really for straight ally or straight trans since the latter don’t necessitate non-normative sex.

But then, I’m willing to change my mind if someone could explain to me how the use of queer specifically (a word that, from the theoretical standpoint I’m viewing it from, is inherently destabilizing toward definitions) by straight folks of any variety is appropriation.

Seconded. The beauty of the word queer is it’s inability to be adequately captured by any one definition. Queer is an identity that can be claimed by anyone for whom normative heterosexuality doesn’t work or fit. Be they gay, lesbian, asexual, trans, straight, kinky, monogamish, etc. To tell folks they aren’t queer is to go against the very spirit of the word.