Oooooh, this is an interesting one about his intentions.
I do think online, it is easy to stay in a bubble convinced that everyone's intentions are bad.
For a couple of years I had a podcast called Queerious. I interviewed 'Queer' Artists about their work and what it was like growing up gay etc. It was quite enjoyable and affirming to hear embarrassing stories about falling in love with the straight girl in school (classic). But what I wasn't aware of at all, was that Queer Theory existed or was even a belief system.
I had heard that Queer was a slur that people used to use against gay blokes but it had been 'reclaimed'. At that time, I thought it was a powerful thing to encourage and would go to Queer groups for film nights and events. Purely to have a laugh and meet new people. Never with ill-intentions. Again, I named my podcast this because I thought it was a cool name.
Since having a massive mental health breakdown (or hitting woke breaking point as Lindsay once put it), I started to reassess things and realised that one of my core values had been ignored since being embedded in this way of thinking. My dad taught me that being gay is not a big deal. It's about wanting to have sex with the same sex and that's the only difference between me and someone else. He was right and I knew that in my heart, but for years would get more involved with being Queer, lots of naval gazing with anger and saying Capitalism a lot and spending hours and hours online and berating and shouting at people for believing differently.
I still feel ashamed about that.
A lot of people don't really have a clue about all of these theories and it would be incredibly helpful if they were rightly framed as theories and not facts. Especially when looked at in universities or social groups.
Mamdani seems to be a critical theory advocate in lots of his personal politics, so no doubt he knows what Queer means in that context, but I think the word Queer to most people now means gay or including all letters of the gay alphabet. Whether people like that or not.
And when people belong to LGB groups, it's going to be hard to have dialogue about it, because from the Queer side you are made aware that anyone questioning your views is a bigot or deliberately wants to bully people or exclude them. And I'm sure as you know being a Bisexual woman, part of the experience of being gay is not wanting other people to be picked on or left out.
Anyway, I wish I could afford to subscribe, but sadly I am a penniless pauper. But still your biggest fan and one day will curtsey you for helping me come out of this way of thinking. Seems good story telling, cognitive dissonance and rational kindness are ways of helping people come out of such ideologies.
Yes, I did try to stress at the beginning and the end that I think incomprehension about the way ‘queer’ is used in a political context is genuine and good faith. I don’t think it’s credible that Mamdani just doesn’t follow left-wing political discourse, but those who don’t directly campaign or debate can.
I think that is the right way to go to GG, but I think it's become a little more complicated with language changing and people trying to do the right thing and not upset anybody.
As for Mamdani, I’m willing to cut him considerable slack. Even people who are highly political, canny, and discourse-aware don’t necessarily manifest it on all of their actions.
Mamdani may understand the philosophical discourse around the word “queer”, maybe even well enough to write about it coherently, but it’s more likely that he or his comms people weren’t thinking about it in the context of issuing a happy pride tweet.
As for the word itself, I have long rejected the label, and flinch at the dividing line being drawn between LGB and QT, when many trans people do not consider themselves to be queer in the political sense
Even though my politics remain fairly left leaning, my pre transition life was pretty gender conforming, as is my post transition life. I am not looking to deconstruct gender and sex categories, in perfectly content with the one I am in (now)
Good article, thankyou. In Australia it is now illegal for lesbians to organise public events for same-sex attracted women. This is because queer theory dogma has been enacted into laws and policies. Lesbians are now meant to be attracted to males who claim to be lesbians, who describe their penises as ‘female penises’. Genderists deny or downplay biological sex and say the subjective ‘gender identity’ should override all other considerations. We are now subject to authoritarian laws informed by queer theory. The legacy LGB organisations have been colonised by queer theory and gender ideology. These LGBTQWERTY organisations now produce glossaries that redefine us to fit the dogma. Whereas a few years ago we fought for ‘same sex’ marriage, the phrase ‘same sex’ has been sent to the scrap heap. We are now described as ‘same gender attracted’. I want nothing to do with ‘queer’. I want nothing to do with the ever expanding acronym. I ask that if people would like to refer to a lesbian they use the word ‘lesbian’. If referring to same-sex attracted people, say ‘LGB’. But please don’t force-team us in the LGBTQ+ acronym, and please don’t call us ‘queer’.
"While trans people are also celebrated, the majority of those who also consider themselves to be gay men or lesbians would, by the standard definition of homosexuality, be heterosexual."
In other wirds, crossdressing heterosexuals are calling themselves gay in order to coerce actual gay people into heterosexual sex. The cotton ceiling. Nothing liberating about that.
“That is, they have failed to recognise that ‘queer’ refers to a set of political and philosophical beliefs about sex, gender and sexuality which holds that having categories for these is an oppressive social construct which should be disrupted as a form of progressive political activism.” - Spot fucking on🎯! I wrote a piece about “queer ideology” and how it has come to replace to lesbian, gay, bisexual - because such terms are limiting and oppressive and how it’s completely overtaken the LGB community and movement….I long for the day where being gay, lesbian or bisexual just means who you’re attracted to and not some political statement or “identity”. I don’t want gay conservative to be oxymoronic, or Catholic lesbian to be confusing or shocking.
"It is, of course, possible that Mr. Mamdani misspoke and does not fully appreciate what queer means in the current discourse of political activism. People can use the term as a slur or misunderstand it as a broadly inclusive term as indicated by the people responding to Andrew. It seems unlikely that Mamdani would not understand the political implications, however, because he is a politician who has been active on many related issues."
I find it hard to believe that Mamdani, sitting down to draft such a statement, would deliberately exclude gays, lesbians, and bisexuals who were not queer. As you say, he is a politician, and recognizes that such exclusions are not good for business. If he had thought "queer" in this context excluded a large number LGB, he'd have added "LGB" to his message. That seems to me to be the most likely explanation. So he may be aware of the political-philosophical tradition of "queer" but that knowledge may not be specifically activated in this instance. The idea that a savvy politician would, as part of a pride announcement, deliberately exclude many LGB seems like an argument requiring considerable evidence.
Hooray! This definition of LGB and the distinction it makes from everything covered by LGBTQIA++, is so straightforward, but so little understood. Almost everything you read on the net fails to make this distinction. I have long suspected that those who adopt the term "pansexual" do so because they want to think they could have sex with anyone, regardless of their "gender", which is not only not a bad aspiration, but is probably true for most people. But it is totally different from the visceral feeling of attraction towards somebody because of their innate sexuality, over which a person has no control or choice.
Wow that was complicated. ID politics keeps getting crazier and crazier. I missed this transition. When I was young, the term "queer" was a slur against gay men.
What is even more confusing to me is the use of the term "Left" to describe these belief systems.
Good article. I think it is a bit of a stretch to assume Mandami has studied this stuff.
Oooooh, this is an interesting one about his intentions.
I do think online, it is easy to stay in a bubble convinced that everyone's intentions are bad.
For a couple of years I had a podcast called Queerious. I interviewed 'Queer' Artists about their work and what it was like growing up gay etc. It was quite enjoyable and affirming to hear embarrassing stories about falling in love with the straight girl in school (classic). But what I wasn't aware of at all, was that Queer Theory existed or was even a belief system.
I had heard that Queer was a slur that people used to use against gay blokes but it had been 'reclaimed'. At that time, I thought it was a powerful thing to encourage and would go to Queer groups for film nights and events. Purely to have a laugh and meet new people. Never with ill-intentions. Again, I named my podcast this because I thought it was a cool name.
Since having a massive mental health breakdown (or hitting woke breaking point as Lindsay once put it), I started to reassess things and realised that one of my core values had been ignored since being embedded in this way of thinking. My dad taught me that being gay is not a big deal. It's about wanting to have sex with the same sex and that's the only difference between me and someone else. He was right and I knew that in my heart, but for years would get more involved with being Queer, lots of naval gazing with anger and saying Capitalism a lot and spending hours and hours online and berating and shouting at people for believing differently.
I still feel ashamed about that.
A lot of people don't really have a clue about all of these theories and it would be incredibly helpful if they were rightly framed as theories and not facts. Especially when looked at in universities or social groups.
Mamdani seems to be a critical theory advocate in lots of his personal politics, so no doubt he knows what Queer means in that context, but I think the word Queer to most people now means gay or including all letters of the gay alphabet. Whether people like that or not.
And when people belong to LGB groups, it's going to be hard to have dialogue about it, because from the Queer side you are made aware that anyone questioning your views is a bigot or deliberately wants to bully people or exclude them. And I'm sure as you know being a Bisexual woman, part of the experience of being gay is not wanting other people to be picked on or left out.
Anyway, I wish I could afford to subscribe, but sadly I am a penniless pauper. But still your biggest fan and one day will curtsey you for helping me come out of this way of thinking. Seems good story telling, cognitive dissonance and rational kindness are ways of helping people come out of such ideologies.
Have a great week! :)
Yes, I did try to stress at the beginning and the end that I think incomprehension about the way ‘queer’ is used in a political context is genuine and good faith. I don’t think it’s credible that Mamdani just doesn’t follow left-wing political discourse, but those who don’t directly campaign or debate can.
I didn't mean you were in a bubble by the way. You are without bubble!
I always thought the goal was to establish tolerance and social acceptance of those with same sex attraction - I think that is the right way to go.
I'm sure there are some old timers around who would object to the term "Queer".
But of course, I could be wrong. I often am.
I think that is the right way to go to GG, but I think it's become a little more complicated with language changing and people trying to do the right thing and not upset anybody.
Interesting read as always
As for Mamdani, I’m willing to cut him considerable slack. Even people who are highly political, canny, and discourse-aware don’t necessarily manifest it on all of their actions.
Mamdani may understand the philosophical discourse around the word “queer”, maybe even well enough to write about it coherently, but it’s more likely that he or his comms people weren’t thinking about it in the context of issuing a happy pride tweet.
As for the word itself, I have long rejected the label, and flinch at the dividing line being drawn between LGB and QT, when many trans people do not consider themselves to be queer in the political sense
Even though my politics remain fairly left leaning, my pre transition life was pretty gender conforming, as is my post transition life. I am not looking to deconstruct gender and sex categories, in perfectly content with the one I am in (now)
Good article, thankyou. In Australia it is now illegal for lesbians to organise public events for same-sex attracted women. This is because queer theory dogma has been enacted into laws and policies. Lesbians are now meant to be attracted to males who claim to be lesbians, who describe their penises as ‘female penises’. Genderists deny or downplay biological sex and say the subjective ‘gender identity’ should override all other considerations. We are now subject to authoritarian laws informed by queer theory. The legacy LGB organisations have been colonised by queer theory and gender ideology. These LGBTQWERTY organisations now produce glossaries that redefine us to fit the dogma. Whereas a few years ago we fought for ‘same sex’ marriage, the phrase ‘same sex’ has been sent to the scrap heap. We are now described as ‘same gender attracted’. I want nothing to do with ‘queer’. I want nothing to do with the ever expanding acronym. I ask that if people would like to refer to a lesbian they use the word ‘lesbian’. If referring to same-sex attracted people, say ‘LGB’. But please don’t force-team us in the LGBTQ+ acronym, and please don’t call us ‘queer’.
"While trans people are also celebrated, the majority of those who also consider themselves to be gay men or lesbians would, by the standard definition of homosexuality, be heterosexual."
In other wirds, crossdressing heterosexuals are calling themselves gay in order to coerce actual gay people into heterosexual sex. The cotton ceiling. Nothing liberating about that.
“That is, they have failed to recognise that ‘queer’ refers to a set of political and philosophical beliefs about sex, gender and sexuality which holds that having categories for these is an oppressive social construct which should be disrupted as a form of progressive political activism.” - Spot fucking on🎯! I wrote a piece about “queer ideology” and how it has come to replace to lesbian, gay, bisexual - because such terms are limiting and oppressive and how it’s completely overtaken the LGB community and movement….I long for the day where being gay, lesbian or bisexual just means who you’re attracted to and not some political statement or “identity”. I don’t want gay conservative to be oxymoronic, or Catholic lesbian to be confusing or shocking.
I disagree about Mamdani, I think it much more likely that he was using “queer” to mean all non-heterosexuals.
"It is, of course, possible that Mr. Mamdani misspoke and does not fully appreciate what queer means in the current discourse of political activism. People can use the term as a slur or misunderstand it as a broadly inclusive term as indicated by the people responding to Andrew. It seems unlikely that Mamdani would not understand the political implications, however, because he is a politician who has been active on many related issues."
I find it hard to believe that Mamdani, sitting down to draft such a statement, would deliberately exclude gays, lesbians, and bisexuals who were not queer. As you say, he is a politician, and recognizes that such exclusions are not good for business. If he had thought "queer" in this context excluded a large number LGB, he'd have added "LGB" to his message. That seems to me to be the most likely explanation. So he may be aware of the political-philosophical tradition of "queer" but that knowledge may not be specifically activated in this instance. The idea that a savvy politician would, as part of a pride announcement, deliberately exclude many LGB seems like an argument requiring considerable evidence.
However, I've been wrong before.
Hooray! This definition of LGB and the distinction it makes from everything covered by LGBTQIA++, is so straightforward, but so little understood. Almost everything you read on the net fails to make this distinction. I have long suspected that those who adopt the term "pansexual" do so because they want to think they could have sex with anyone, regardless of their "gender", which is not only not a bad aspiration, but is probably true for most people. But it is totally different from the visceral feeling of attraction towards somebody because of their innate sexuality, over which a person has no control or choice.
Is this a UK thing or US? or both.
Wow that was complicated. ID politics keeps getting crazier and crazier. I missed this transition. When I was young, the term "queer" was a slur against gay men.
What is even more confusing to me is the use of the term "Left" to describe these belief systems.
Good article. I think it is a bit of a stretch to assume Mandami has studied this stuff.