You’ve heard the phrase “that’s gay.” It’s been used so often that it’s gone from past offensive to desensitized back to offensive. I’ve come to a compromised. Instead of gay, things can be queer. At least with queer it has a few more entries in it outside of homophobic in nature.
Here is a large portion of the word queer on dictionary.com
- strange or odd from a conventional viewpoint; unusually different; singular: a queer notion of justice.
- of a questionable nature or character; suspicious; shady:Something queer about the language of the prospectus kept investors away.
- not feeling physically right or well; giddy, faint, or qualmish:to feel queer.
- mentally unbalanced or deranged: Glenn Beck is queer. [editor’s note: Casey added this on his own accord. This isn’t on dictionary.com’s definition of the word ‘queer’]
So we’re going to use the term “That’s so queer.” It is using the word queer in the right manner. In a sense, like Randell Graves from Clerks II, I’m taking the word back. I’m taking back queer to be something that isn’t used as a homophobic slur. In a sense it’s a transitional phase. Since queer still has that homophobic feel, we’re going to gently move the term over to the none homophobic use.
Besides, whenever I hear the word “gay,” I don’t think:
Oddly enough, this isn't what I picture when I hear the word gay.
But since I grew up on re-runs, the idea of the word gay, I think of this:
This when happens when I think gay. Over time, some homosexual overtones after a while.
I see the Flintstones. A group of people who overall were very gay. And not the homosexual above but the happy people who travel and vacation together all the time and where constantly hatching a scheme is looked upon as a good thing.
So again, we are now changing “that’s so gay,” to “that’s so queer.”