When umbrella terms cause offence - Christie Elan-Cane and 'Gender Queer' »

Mac responds to Christie Elan-Cane’s strong objections to ‘gender queer’:

maccy-p:

This is very much a generational thing. I am gender queer. I’m also British. I’m also a young adult. The I use gender queer to refer to my gender because it is a queer gender identity. I am not female, I am not male. I am something between and out side that binary. It is not offensive to me. In fact it is the opposite, it is comfortable.

Trigger Warning: Homophobic and transphobic slurs

I do not mean to be age-ist in this statement, and I apologise if it comes across that way: I and many young gender queer identifying people do not find it offensive. It is clear from the statement saying that queer is more derogatory than faggot, that this person is of an older generation than myself. I personally and the vast majority of people my age view faggot as a more derogatory word. Whether it is being used by someone or against them, faggot is so much worse than queer as an insult.

End of triggering section.

It may be wrong for me to take the stage representing all people of the younger generations but it is even worse for this person to claim to speak for all ages. We younger people have very different attitudes than those who grew up with no exposure to non-straight/non-cis people.

Having gender queer in the WPATH validates my identity. It may not be perfect, it may not cover every non-binary identity. But if it was a choice of having it in there or keeping the WPATH guidelines binary specific, I know which I would choose and probably what you would choose as well.

I agree that this is very much a generational thing. Elan-Cane represents the generation before mine who were trailblazing the way for nonbinary and genderqueer people back when I was still in school - see this newspaper article from 1995 for example.

I’m in my 30s now, I live and grew up in the UK and have been using ‘queer’ and ‘genderqueer’ as my labels of choice since I was a teenager (ironically since seeing a Channel 4 TV series ‘Queer Street’on a BBC documentary Q.E.D.: Sex Acts that featured Elan-Cane among others), and had to fight tooth and nail for my right to do so due to how offended other LGBT people were by the term back in the late 1990s. I would successfully argue to be allowed to call myself queer, I was never allowed to call other people queer. I still know people in the UK LGBT community who take offense at queer as an umbrella term despite years of shows like Queer Eye and Queer As Folk normalising the term. And I still get ‘queer’ shouted at me as a slur, even now (although for me it’s very much a “Yes, very observant of you” reaction).

I absolutely agree with you that genderqueer is a label of power, recognition, comfort and validation for all those who use it and that it is right that it should be included and recognised by WPATH. I myself am genderqueer as well as nonbinary (and gender neutral, androgynous and transgender) and I’m committed to ensuring that all gender identities (and lack of identities) and expressions that don’t fit the gender binary are represented and celebrated.

I mainly reblogged Christie Elan-Cane’s opinion to raise the point that some people do find the term offensive when it’s applied to them, and that it can be problematic to use reclaimed slur words for umbrella terms when some people object to being put under their umbrella.

I was trying not to be ageist when I avoided saying that the opinion is particularly held by older people (I’d say it starts to be a trend in those aged 30 and older), but you’re right, I should have made it clearer that it was one person’s opinion and not fully representative. Also, whether ’f—got’ has passed into British speech from American culture seems to vary regionally, it’s something I’ve never heard used around here, but I hear that it’s more common in other areas.

And yes, I agree that Elan-Cane has a tendency to write in a single voice as if speaking for everyone outside the binary, and in doing so often erases people with different nonbinary experiences in just the same way as non-gendered people usually get erased in transgender writing.

I think activism work that sets out to be inclusive and representative of a plurality of voices and experiences, rather than a single activist’s opinions, tends to be more effective.

(via maccyp)