A note on the term ‘Queer’
In this blog, Queer+ Croydon exhibitor Mark Goldby introduces the history of the term ‘Queer’; from negative to the powerful reclamation we see today.
The term queer was used by the Victorians to mean ‘ill’, ‘other’ and even ‘strange’, for example the Yorkshire phrase “there’s nowt as queer as folk”, meaning “people can be strange.”
It became widely used as a slur when it was directed as an insult towards Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, who became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1894. The PM was called a “snob queer” in a letter from Lord Queensberry to Alfred Montgomery after it was speculated of romantic involvement with his Private Secretary.
Homosexual relationships were still considered a crime and could be punished with jail time, such as Oscar Wilde’s infamous imprisonment in 1895 at Reading Jail . To be queer was to be criminal, and the threat of the accusation bore the strength to oppress homosexuals for many years to follow.
Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery in 1918
by Bain is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
The Wolfenden Report was published in 1957 and recommended legalising homosexuality. By 1967 the Sexual Offences Act had partially decriminalised homosexuality and was inspired by the 1969 Stonewall Riots in America, gay rights movements formed in the UK.
“homosexual behaviour between consenting adults in private should no longer be a criminal offence”
Groups included the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) and the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE). Croydon had it’s own active branch of CHE known as ‘London Group 7’. With the establishment of Gay Pride in 1972 ‘coming out of the closet’ and publicly identifying as ‘queer’ became a political act in itself.
By the 1980’s activists were using reclaimed homophobic slurs to create shocking and subversive political messages. The AIDS crisis had become a worldwide concern with many of the first sufferers being gay men who were stigmatised as disease carriers. Intolerance towards gay people grew and became drastically violent by the 1990’s with frequent occurrences of ‘queer bashing’. Many attacks resulted in murder, including cases in Croydon.
The deaths of five gay men in London from homophobic attacks led to the formation of OutRage! in 1990 as a direct response to the escalating violence. Victims were too afraid to come forward due to a lack of trust in the police force and public humiliation by the press. Identifying as ‘queer’ became fraught with danger once again, some were traumatised for the rest of their lives, and would never feel comfortable using the term.
In the UK today, generally speaking ‘queer’ has shaken off it’s homophobic roots and has become a catch all term for anything that belongs under the umbrella of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning, Intersex, Asexual (LGBTQIA+), often shortened to LGBT+. It may also be used as a term by people whose gender and/or sexuality is best viewed on a spectrum rather than in categories. A good example of a modern queer identity are people who identify as ‘non-binary’. They do not use ‘he’ or ‘she’ preferring to use gender neutral pronouns such as ‘they’.
Throughout the chapters of ‘Queer+ Croydon’, I will be using the terms ‘LGBT+’ and ‘queer’ as ways to describe communities of people which I will use interchangeably. My own identity - of which I am still discovering - shifts from ‘gay man’ to ‘queer person’.
by Mark Goldby, Queer+ Croydon exhibitor
Sources:
i-d Vice
OutRage!
Speak Out London Archive, LMA
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