In New York City in the early 1990s, ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power, was having unprecedented success in changing the national conversation about HIV and, more importantly, making real world changes in the way experimental drugs were tested and approved. Behind that success was the significant numbers of HIV positive gay men among the members. When a discussion at the Monday night meeting veered too far into lefty cloud cuckoo land, all it took was for one of these men to stand up and say, “I’m dying and I feel for you, really I do, but I don’t have time for this,” and discussion would get back on track.
Several people, almost all HIV negative, got tired of having their concerns brushed aside, so they formed a new group. As ACT UP was derided by some as a “gay men’s organization” (this was untrue: lesbians who were always prominent members had expertise in community organizing and the analytical tools from second wave feminism), the new group wanted to make it clear that they were not that. As the group contained many lesbians, they sought a name for themselves that wouldn’t mention the word gay but make it clear that they weren’t straight. Thus Queer Nation was born.
They were around for about a year. All I remember them doing was having a demonstration outside the New York Stock Exchange targeting a publicly held restaurant chain called Cracker Barrel that had demanded that a gay couple leave. I doubt that Cracker Barrel or it’s shareholders even noticed.
So originally, the slur “queer” was allegedly reclaimed as a useful way of saying “gays AND lesbians” without saying either gay or lesbians.
I know all this because I was there, in New York City, a member of ACT UP, fighting in the streets to save the lives of my gay brothers.
How “queer” came to be a term that conveys a person’s politics but says nothing about who they have sex with is a mystery I can’t help to shed light on.
A historical note...
In New York City in the early 1990s, ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power, was having unprecedented success in changing the national conversation about HIV and, more importantly, making real world changes in the way experimental drugs were tested and approved. Behind that success was the significant numbers of HIV positive gay men among the members. When a discussion at the Monday night meeting veered too far into lefty cloud cuckoo land, all it took was for one of these men to stand up and say, “I’m dying and I feel for you, really I do, but I don’t have time for this,” and discussion would get back on track.
Several people, almost all HIV negative, got tired of having their concerns brushed aside, so they formed a new group. As ACT UP was derided by some as a “gay men’s organization” (this was untrue: lesbians who were always prominent members had expertise in community organizing and the analytical tools from second wave feminism), the new group wanted to make it clear that they were not that. As the group contained many lesbians, they sought a name for themselves that wouldn’t mention the word gay but make it clear that they weren’t straight. Thus Queer Nation was born.
They were around for about a year. All I remember them doing was having a demonstration outside the New York Stock Exchange targeting a publicly held restaurant chain called Cracker Barrel that had demanded that a gay couple leave. I doubt that Cracker Barrel or it’s shareholders even noticed.
So originally, the slur “queer” was allegedly reclaimed as a useful way of saying “gays AND lesbians” without saying either gay or lesbians.
I know all this because I was there, in New York City, a member of ACT UP, fighting in the streets to save the lives of my gay brothers.
How “queer” came to be a term that conveys a person’s politics but says nothing about who they have sex with is a mystery I can’t help to shed light on.
It is insulting! I remember when they added the Q and there were tons of gay men who were furious, but they were basically told to shut up.