People who remember when "queer" was only a negative term, and may have been
yelled that in some nasty situations, often don't want to use it in its
reclaimed, positive meaning now.  As a college student, I have the benefit of
not remembering the pre-Stonewall connotations of "queer"--I was not born yet.
Or is it more ignorance than benefit?  Benefit of the flexibility that
ignorance brings??

I actually feel more strongly about the reclamation of pink triangles.  I don't
think that so many people who wear these triangles today know much about the
Holocaust and what it has meant to its victims: gays, lesbians, Jews, Gypsies,
Catholics, and so many others. I don't like it when people bear these powerful
symbols without really having learned a lesson from the history behind it.

I think we need more exhibits like the ones mentioned so far, just to expose
more people to these forbidden, feared, and ridiculed topics.  Forbidden,
feared, and ridiculed PEOPLE.
More exhibits like that would educate museum professionals like Eric Siegal so
that he wouldn't talk so flip about things he admittedly knows little
about!
Exhibits like that might educate others so that they would be less quick to
condemn outbursts like Cari's, which are, admittedly, ill-phrased, but reflect
a profound and often justified outrage towards a smug ignorance of minority
issues.  So many folks have written in to give Cari a dressing-down, but I have
yet to hear anyone contemplate whether Eric's earlier comment was off-color
(pun intended).  I think it was, in a relatively inocuous way--not worth the
flaming it received, but not to be defended as enthusiastically as it has been.
There are many ways to express a constructive curiosity--all of them require
ample respect for the object of your inquiry. Looking back on Eric's earlier
forays into grammar and vocabulary nitpicking, it sounds like he has missed the
point again this time--he makes little of the new terminology, and he completely
misses the bigger picture--what it reflects about lesbian/gay/bisexual culture
and society, and mainstream society in kind.

Happy Coming Out Day!  If you don't know about it, find out about it!

Bethany Hoffman
[log in to unmask]
Former Education Coordinator
Oberlin Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Union
Oberlin College
Oberlin, OH

My opinions are my own, and do not necessarily reflect that of my institution
(although I think a heck of a lot of people here would agree)