Have you ever wondered whether you might be queer?
The word queer is a wonderfully broad label that describes any non-straight and/or non-cisgender identity!
It can be an umbrella term for any and all LGBTQ+ identities (including both sexuality and gender), as well as an independent label that people use to describe their experiences.
Also, a lot of people (myself included) use the phrase “queer community” interchangeably with “LGBTQ+ community” — again, as an overarching descriptor for anyone whose gender and/or sexuality deviates from societal norms.
The label queer has evolved a *lot* over time — from being used solely to mean “strange,” to being used as a derogatory term for the LGBTQ+ community, to being reclaimed by the community in the present day.
(This shift in the meaning of “queer” could be an entire post in itself — it’s always so fascinating to me how language changes over time, especially when it comes to a community reclaiming a word that had previously been used to disempower them!)
Nowadays, the definition and context of the word queer is so vast and open — which means it can mean a lot of different things to different people.
As such, there’s no one right way to be queer, and no one set of signs that this is the identity for you!
However, there can definitely be a lot of commonalities and overlaps in the queer experience —
And I witnessed this when I put a question box on my story the other day, asking the queer people in this community to share some signs that this was the label for them!
To see some of these signs — and learn more about the vastness of being queer, see the images below.
Let me know if any of these signs resonate with you!
💬 Do you use / connect to the label queer? How do you feel about formerly derogatory words being reclaimed over time? 💬