Queer the Movement: Defining and Understanding “Queer”

[Out and Equal Administrator]

Throughout the decades, workplace culture has become increasingly familiar with the LGBT acronym and what the letters within it represent. However, many are newer in their journey of incorporating and understanding an important, but often omitted, piece of the LGBT puzzle—The Q.  

As we all know, language plays a crucial role in the formation, implementation, and execution of diversity and inclusion initiatives in any arena. It also plays a crucial role in the formation and articulation of our own individual identities. 

Once (and still sometimes used) as a derogatory term, the term ‘queer’ carries weight. For some in the community, the term is still considered to be harmful. However, newer generations have worked to reclaim the word and consider it to be a powerful term with which to identify. 

Queer is a nuanced term—one that resists definition, as well as a term that represents a variety of meaning for people across the spectrum of sexual orientation and gender identity. Given the multiplicity of definition in mind, identifying as “queer” may mean something completely different to one person than the next.

In the interest of providing a space to deepen our conversations around the term queer:

•    Do you identify as queer?

•    If so, what does it mean to you?

 

[Author]

Posts