#queer resources
This conversation plays through my head any time I see a “queer is a slur” bullshit post on this site or anywhere, really.
(Homer’s Phobia, 1997 – guest star, John Waters)
Someone just liked this, so I want to add an important note:
“queer is a slur” is a common tool used by TERFs to poison young queers against their own community. They teach young queers that using “queer” is against the rules because “queer is a slur” and then young queers repeat it because the elders in their queer social circle told them so.
Why? Because if young queers understand that queer is a loving and welcoming term for everyone who is not straight or does not match their birth sex, then TERFs lose all their power.
Because TERFs don’t just hate trans and non-binary people. They also hate bisexuals and pansexuals for wrecking their view that to be a wlw, you only live women with vaginas and to be mlm, you must only love men with penises.
But also, to reject the use of queer, you must reject intersex people because TERFs base their entire view on what set of genitals you have, and because intersex people don’t have textbook junk, TERFs don’t like them either.
And you must reject asexual queers across the board because so much of TERF defense is “I just wanna fuck a woman with a vagina or a man with a dick!” And if you have zero or minimal interest in fucking anyone, you wreck their arguments about what queer people want.
You know who else TERFs don’t like? Questioning people. Because to question your sexuality and realize you are straight is a loss for them. To question your gender and realizes it matches your birth sex is a loss for them. Why? Because to question either of these things means you examine who you are beyond a base level, and if you go behind a base level and understand even a basic sense of the confusing and difficult nature of sexual attraction and how it does and does not affect your gender, you can more easily see the holes in TERF arguments, which are all based on stereotypes of gender and sexuality.
The only reason the “B” makes it into the TERF acronym of queer culture is because if they left it at “LG” their hatred of the entire part of the community who is most comfortable using “queer” is a six-foot neon sign.
And to any bisexual TERFs I haven’t yet blocked who want to argue they are bisexual TERFs, so my argument about the use of “B” as a political abuse is invalid: The monosexual TERFs will have you against the wall in a fucking second. You are the sullied allies they put up with until you step out of line.
Lastly, the gay man in this episode is voiced by John Waters. He is a gay legend for tacky film and also an activist for queer rights. When his joke of the Baltimore Museum of Art naming a bathroom after him finally came true a couple of years ago, it was a gender-inclusive bathroom. And he brought his longtime friend and trans activist Elizabeth Coffey with him.
I am certain John Waters would tell you not to fuck TERFs in the same way he has said not to fuck people who don’t have books in their houses. And I am certain John Waters–an out and proud gay man known for his beautiful trash cinema and love and support of trans people–would tell you that queer is not a slur.
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[Image Description: A row of physical pamphlets on LGBTQ+ identity, the first six produced for Queer Condensed. They sit on a table with a trans flag as a tablecloth. Temporary tattoos and magnets can be seen behind them.]
Welcome Message v2.0 + Opportunities to Help!
Hey there! I’m Lorant (they/them/theirs), the author / designer / everything else currently behind Queer Condensed. I wanted to write this post to explain the project a bit better - where it’s been, what’s going on, and what it’s doing.
There is a small Q&A you can get to by clicking on this text, but I figured that a project summary would do well, and also I want to participate in Making Queer History’s Queerworks Fridays.
Anyways, Queer Condensed is a project aimed at making clean, accessible, short resources on queer topics since a lot of times, things that can be easily printed out are behind paywalls or outdated (or both) and the better resources are often articles that take a while to read and can’t be easily printed out and shown to people. It started as a class project in fall of 2016 thanks to the help of my two classmates, and I decided to keep working away at it.
Updates are pretty slow, but they’re happening! Since the initial six-pamphlet run of the project, I’ve added two new pamphlets, updated three of the originals, and created one-page guides for chest binding and packing. Currently I’m working on minor updates like adding image descriptions to my posts, creating a template that pamphlets can be based on and updated to, and making the Tumblr easier to navigate for people not used to the site. I also have several pamphlets / guides planned, including making more specified Asexual and Transgender pamphlets, writing one-page guides to dysphoria-relieving items for transfeminine people, and possibly making introductions to historical people and events.
This is kind of a lot for one person and here’s where I get to the second purpose of this post - I need some help!
There’s a lot of small ways readers can help the project:
- Look over pamphlets and send Queer Condensed an ask if there needs to be updates or fixes
- Suggest resources for existing topics or blogs that are relevant to this project
- Suggest new topics
- Ask for the template and make your own pamphlet, which I can help you with and host on here or link to wherever you put it up
- Reblog the posts or link to them from other social media
- Critique my image descriptions - I’m very new to adding them and don’t really know if I’m doing a good job
- Tell me how to make the blog or materials more accessible
This is very much a long shot, but I’d also really like to find a new project partner to work with. I’ve updated the Q&A (linked above) to reflect what I’m looking for to not make this long post any longer, but basically I’d love another writer or at least a moderator that has identities that differ from mine in some way. If you’re interested at all please check that out!
Anyway, thanks for reading this, it means a lot to me. I hope this was a good introduction or refresher to the project. Feel free to check out the resourcesorsend the blog an ask. There’s also [email protected] if you’d rather send an email.
A quick reminder: you’re fantastic.
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I’m watching that documentary “Before Stonewall” about gay history pre-1969, and uncovered something which I think is interesting.
The documentary includes a brief clip of a 1954 televised newscast about the rise of homosexuality. The host of the program interviewed psychologists, a police officer, and one “known homosexual”. The “known homosexual” is 22 years old. He identifies himself as Curtis White, which is a pseudonym; his name is actually Dale Olson.
So I tracked down the newscast. According to what I can find, Dale Olson may have been the first gay man to appear openly on television and defend his sexual orientation. He explains that there’s nothing wrong with him mentally and he’s never been arrested. When asked whether he’d take a cure if it existed, he says no. When asked whether his family knows he’s gay, he says that they didn’t up until tonight, but he guesses they’re going to find out, and he’ll probably be fired from his job as well. So of course the host is like …why are you doing this interview then? and Dale Olson, cool as cucumber pie, says “I think that this way I can be a little useful to someone besides myself.”
1954. 22 years old. Balls of pure titanium.
Despite the pseudonym, Dale’s boss did indeed recognize him from the TV program, and he was promptly fired the next day. He wrote into ONE magazine six months later to reassure readers that he had gotten a new job at a higher salary.
Curious about what became of him, I looked into his life a little further. It turns out that he ultimately became a very successful publicity agent. He promoted the Rocky movies and Superman.Not only that, but get this: Dale represented Rock Hudson, and he was the person who convinced him to disclose that he had AIDS! Hewrote the statement Rock read. And as we know, Rock Hudson’s disclosure had a very significant effect on the national conversation about AIDS in the U.S.
It appears that no one has made the connection between Dale Olson the publicity agent instrumental in the AIDS debate and Dale Olson the 22-year-old first openly gay man on TV. So I thought I’d make it. For Pride month, an unsung gay hero.
