Queer for me is a loaded term. There is the history of violence and hatred but for me right here right now, the term is a reclaimed one that only the person using it can fully explain. Some might use it as a synonym for gay, others might use it as a synonym for the acronym LGBT.

When I use queer to describe myself, I mean it as anti heteronormative and as an escape for narrowly labeling myself. I don’t use it as a synonym for gay because I am not gay.The best quote that current describes my understanding and use of queer is:

Not queer like gay. Queer like, escaping definition. Queer like some sort of fluidity and limitlessness at once. Queer like a freedom too strange to be conquered. Queer like the fearlessness to imagine what love can look like… and pursue it

At the moment, I’m not 100% sure who said this quote but it is one that I intensely identify with. And it is the explanation I think of when using the term queer.