Editing Queer (section)

{{Short description|People who are not heterosexual or not cisgender}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Pp-semi-indef|small=yes}}
{{LGBTQ sidebar}}
{{Sexual orientation}}
'''Queer''' is an [[umbrella term]] for people who are [[non-heterosexual]] or non-[[cisgender]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Definition of QUEER |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/queer |access-date=2024-02-17 |website=www.merriam-webster.com |language=en |archive-date=2019-12-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191202200538/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/queer |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=December 11, 2019 |title=The 'Q' in LGBTQ: Queer/Questioning |url=https://www.psychiatry.org/news-room/apa-blogs/the-q-in-lgbtq-queer-questioning#:~:text=The%20acronym%20increasingly%20includes%20the,same%2Dsex%20attraction%20and%20behaviors. |access-date=March 3, 2024 |website=American Psychiatric Association}}</ref> Originally meaning {{gloss|strange}} or {{gloss|peculiar}}, ''queer'' came to be used [[pejorative]]ly against [[LGBTQ people]] in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to [[reappropriation|reclaim]] the word as a neutral or positive self-description.<ref name=QN1/><ref name=Sycamore/><ref>{{Cite book |last=Barker |first=Meg-John |title=Queer: A Graphic History |publisher=Icon Books, Ltd. |year=2016 |isbn=9781785780721}}</ref>

In the 21st century, ''queer'' became increasingly used to describe a broad spectrum of non-[[heteronormative]] sexual or gender identities and politics.<ref name="oed">{{cite encyclopedia | year =2014 | title = queer | encyclopedia = Oxford English Dictionary | publisher = Oxford University Press}}</ref><ref>“Queer, Adj. (1), Sense 3.b.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, March 2024, <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/2958900538</nowiki>.</ref> Academic disciplines such as [[queer theory]] and [[queer studies]] share a general opposition to [[Gender binary|binarism]], [[normativity]], and a perceived lack of [[intersectionality]], some of them only tangentially connected to the LGBTQ movement. Queer arts, queer cultural groups, and queer political groups are examples of modern expressions of queer identities.

Critics of the term include members of the [[LGBTQ community]] who associate it more with its colloquial, derogatory usage;<ref name=WG/> those who wish to dissociate themselves from [[queer radicalism]];<ref name=Gamson/> and those who see it as too amorphous or trendy.<ref name="AyoubPaternotte2014"/> ''Queer'' is sometimes expanded to include any non-normative sexuality, including cisgender [[queer heterosexuality]], although some LGBTQ people view this use of the term as [[Cultural appropriation#Gender and sexuality|appropriation]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Kassel|first=Gabrielle|date=2021-06-04|title=Can Straight People Call Themselves Queer Without Being Appropriative? It's Complicated|url=https://www.wellandgood.com/queer-cultural-appropriation/|access-date=2022-01-16|website=Well+Good|language=en|archive-date=2022-01-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220117210505/https://www.wellandgood.com/queer-cultural-appropriation/|url-status=live}}</ref>