What does queer mean?

Queer is an umbrella term for people who do not identify as heterosexual or cisgender. The word comes from English and originally meant “strange” or “odd.” People who identify as queer are saying that their sexual orientation or gender identity differs from what is considered conventional, without choosing a more specific label.

Queer: meaning and origin of the word

The word queer has existed in English since the sixteenth century. At the time, it meant strange, unusual or eccentric. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, it acquired a sexual connotation. An early example is a letter written in 1894 by John Douglas, the Marquess of Queensberry, which was later read aloud during the trial of the writer Oscar Wilde. In the early twentieth century, queer was a common slur for homosexual men, particularly men who were perceived as effeminate.

From slur to reclaimed identity

In the 1980s and 1990s, activists began using the slur themselves. In March 1990, the activist group Queer Nation was founded in New York. In June of that year, the group handed out a pamphlet titled “Queers Read This” at New York’s Gay Pride festival. In it, the writers explained that they deliberately called themselves queer. The word was meant to express anger and militancy, in contrast to the more respectable “gay.”

During the same period, queer theory emerged at universities. Teresa de Lauretis organized the first conference under that name in 1990. Books such as Epistemology of the Closet by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and Gender Trouble by Judith Butler, both published in 1990, are considered foundational. The central idea of this theory is that categories such as man and woman or gay and straight are not natural, but created by society. From the outset, queer has therefore also been a political term.

What does queer mean when someone uses it about themselves?

Today, someone who identifies as queer may mean different things by it. There are roughly three meanings:

• an umbrella term for anyone who is not straight or cisgender, including gay, bisexual, transgender and non-binary people;
• a personal label for someone who does not want to or cannot choose a more specific term;
• a political stance: a deliberate rejection of fixed categories and the norm.

The word is intentionally imprecise. That is its advantage for users and its drawback for critics. The word queer alone does not show whether someone is referring to their sexual orientation, their gender or both.

Is queer the same as gay or lesbian?

No. Gay and lesbian are sexual orientations: they describe whom someone is attracted to. Queer is broader and can also refer to gender identity. A heterosexual woman who identifies as non-binary may call herself queer. A gay man may reject the word. Sexual orientation and gender identity are two different things. This distinction is explained on the page about gender and sexuality.

What is the difference between queer and genderqueer?

Queer is the broader term and can refer to sexuality and gender. Genderqueer refers only to gender. It is an umbrella term for people who place themselves outside or in opposition to the man/woman binary. Genderqueer comes from the same activist tradition as queer and strongly overlaps with non-binary in practice. Someone who is genderqueer may also identify as queer. Conversely, not everyone who identifies as queer is genderqueer: many people use queer only to describe their sexual orientation.

LGBTQI: meaning of the abbreviation

The Q in LGBTQI stands for queer. The Dutch government defines LGBTQI+ as lesbian women, gay men, bisexual people, transgender people, intersex people and queer people. According to the Dutch government, the plus sign represents other identities that are not heterosexual or cisgender. The abbreviation therefore combines three types of categories: sexual orientations (L, G and B), a gender identity (T) and bodily variations (I). The Q is the catch-all category that is meant to include everything in between. The history of how the abbreviation grew letter by letter is explained on letterbrij.nl.

How common is it in the Netherlands?

Queer is not measured separately in Dutch statistics. Based on the 2023 Safety Monitor, Statistics Netherlands estimated that 18 percent of the population aged 15 and over belonged to the LGBTQIA group. That amounts to approximately 2.7 million people. This is a broad definition. Statistics Netherlands classified people based on their answers, not on what they called themselves. Approximately 45,000 people, or 0.3 percent, were classified as non-binary or genderqueer. According to Statistics Netherlands, this group is on average younger than the rest of the population.

Criticism of the word queer

The criticism comes from various directions. For some gay men and lesbians, queer remains a slur. In 1993, the British writer Andrew Sullivan argued that most homosexual people simply want to be part of society as it is, and that a queer identity is precisely what they want to avoid.

A second objection is the word’s vagueness. If almost anyone can call themselves queer, the word may no longer say very much. A third objection comes from gender-critical authors. They believe that queer groups sexual orientation and gender identity together, even though the interests of those groups may conflict. Sexual orientation is based on sex. The idea that gender is an inner identity separate from the body puts that concept under pressure. More background can be found in what is gender and in the overview of identities.