"That's still a slur, you can't use it!"

Okay but... hear me out here... how do you think reclaiming *happens?* Do you think that us queers and dykes and faggots just sat around quietly saying "it sure would be nice if you'd stop using those words meanly, Mr. Cishet"?
1/

Do you think we just sat there politely requesting "ahemhem, if it's not too much trouble, perhaps you could stop calling us lesbo and freak and using 'gay' to mean bad" and then the ever-gracious cishets said "oh, I see what you mean, gosh, we'll stop that"?

2/

FUCK NO.

Reclaiming a slur means grabbing hold of the jagged edges of a word that hurts you with both hands, ripping it away from the people bludgeoning you with it, and using it to parry the next incoming hit.
3/

And look, it's okay if you're not able to do that. Not all of us have the ability to be on the front line, and all of us have to step back and heal from time to time. You can't stay on the front line of reclaiming and claiming space all the time! You need to breathe.
4/

But if you can't be on the front lines, don't stand behind those of us on the front lines, second-guessing every parry and counterstrike, or worse! Hitting us in the back by saying shit like "oh you just want to be oppressed" or "that isn't yours!"
5/

No one - NO ONE - reaches out to grab a knife by its edge except to keep that knife from hitting something softer and more vulnerable.

The ridiculous assertion that people grab for oppression and hurt is just exhausting, y'all.

We are all taking back what hurt us.
6/

The work of reclaiming is hard and exhausting and painful and - most of all - ongoing. There is no point where we just declare "okay, it's done now, our language is now finished, and the status of everything as it is right now is how it will always be."
7/

Language *does not work like that,* and queer language doubly so. We are constantly striving, conversing, working, struggling over the course of years. The words you use today will change, either in use or meaning or context. It WILL happen, and that's a *good thing*.
8/

Some words will remain, and some will fade, and some words will shift. It is just WILD to me how casually and positively kids use "gay" today, without any idea how violent a word that was in my teenage years.
9/

And that's INCREDIBLE to me. It happened because people worked HARD and took on lots of hurt to make it happen.

If you can't use a word, don't. But that reclaiming happens bc people are willing to grab hold of the blade and turn it back.

Stop stabbing us in the back.

10/10

The replies to this, incidentally, are EXACTLY what I'm talking about.

The 'Queer Community' is an opt-in thing. If you're not queer, you're not being referred to in this tweet.

And that's okay. But stop fucking flooding EVERY POSITIVE USE OF QUEER. 11/ https://twitter.com/PicsArtStudio/status/1301947700401696768

If, every time that someone says 'I love the queer community' or 'I love being queer' in a loud and visible way, y'all fucking zerg rush the word with your fucking concern trolling, you know what happens then?

People stop using the word in a positive way. 12/

It actively UNDOES all of the reclaiming that we've been working on, the fact that we have Queer Theory and Queer Studies and Queer Eye. All of those things exist because WE WORKED HARD. Because we yelled 'we're here, we're queer, GET USED TO IT.'

And over time? People DID. 13/

The active reclaiming of queer (as opposed to gay and lesbian, which, I have to reiterate, WERE ALSO SLURS WHEN I WAS GROWING UP) threatens a small but very insidious part of the LGBTQ+ Community.

I didn't use Queer Community there on purpose. And why?

TERFs aren't Queer.
14/

TERFs and lesbian separatists and political lesbians absolutely HATE the word queer. And why?

Because it defies boxes and definition. Because it's a very big umbrella that doesn't allow them to squint at people and ask "BUT WHAT ARE YOU REALLY?"
15/

TERFs, who have been carrying the water for right-wing anti-LGBTQ extremists in the most pick-me bullshit I've ever seen in my life, really really hate when they can't pick apart if someone REALLY belongs.

So they hate, hate, hate queer.

16/

You may not be a TERF yourself, but, uh, guess what? If you zerg rush every single positive use of the words 'queer community' and 'how dare, don't use that,' you're actively undoing the work that your elders have been doing for decades.

17/

You know what you can do if you see someone talking about the queer community and you are not, yourself, queer? If you see someone talking about 'us dykes' and you do not consider yourself a dyke?

Scroll. The fuck. On.

Block us if you feel you need to for your safety.
18/

If you're not queer, we're not talking about you, & we don't want to talk to you about whatever it is we're talking about, bc *you are not part of that community.*

It's not that hard of a concept to understand.

Stop running up behind us and slashing our ACLs.
19/19 (for now)

As per the usual, if you like my yelling about queer stuff, here's how to support me while I do so! https://twitter.com/vaspider/status/1063910324292780033