--- James Whyte <whyte.james@yahoo.com> wrote:
Is "queer" acceptable (non-prejudicial) these days? I have a hard time keeping up with the fashion.
I hadn't seen (or more accurately I guess heard) it used for many years. It had, I suppose, become politically uncorrect (incorrect?) to talk about queers in the early '70s. Very not PC, but people used to talk about queer bashing. Seeing it used came as a bit of a shock - but a quick search revealed quite a lot of current usage (a few URLs follow), so presumably it's a term happily/conciously used by the gay young folk themselves. Are there not gay old or middle aged folk as well? Or is it solely used by the young queers? Language usage and meanings do change, and well may go in cycles of change in meaning if not acceptability. Mind, I gave up having a fag (UK English usage if not fashion) about 15 years ago. http://www.queeryouth.org.uk/ http://www.fyne.co.uk/index.php?item=94 http://www.qnet.org.au/content/faqs_and_articles/publications/Yes_I_Am.pdf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queer_Youth_Alliance http://dixitque.blogspot.com/2006/01/more-queer-fiction-for-young-people.htm... http://bayarea-nodrink.tribe.net/thread/39bec6e4-b1ae-49fd-87be-03cf78eb60f1 Dominic Dominic Pinto http://www.ecademy.com/user/dominicpinto http://www.linkedin.com/in/dominicpinto Live or work in, or visit Covent Garden and Westminster? Check out http://www.westmin.co.uk/index.php e-m: dominic.pinto@ieee.org M: +44 780 302-8268 Ph: +44 207 379-8341 In the U.S. M/Cell: +1 215 667-3001