Queer

I’ve been thinking of “queer” as a word chosen by a society in transition. It feels like a transitional term. Not to represent transition, but a word in context of a culture that is, itself, transitioning.

I’ve been playing with “queer” as a way to say: I identify singularly, intrinsically. Not accomplishing my definition via contrast against a norm (or against you), but defining my definition as being wholly independent of the idea of a norm.

I am queer, and by this I mean that my self-definition is in a different realm than the one in which norms are defined and debated.

I am queer, and by this I mean that my essence — larger than any one realm — protrudes into the realm of norms, and so I may happen to resemble a norm on any given day. But the truth of who and what I am runs deeper, does not have any need to respect the gravity of this place. My identity is weightless, and that does not mean that it floats — it is not made of mass, and so the question of weight is absurd.

I’ve been working with the idea that this ☝️ is essentially true of us all, true of the essence we each carry, or which carries us each. With this way of thinking, it is possibly only a matter of time (or of a perspective on time) until our interactions begin with the assumption of singular, intrinsic identity. We will (I think, I feel) recognize each other ineffably, and create with each other as we are. We will not begin with assumption and representation and what-it-looks-like-I’m-compatible-with-based-on-my-presentation; we will just ask, “what do we each want today?”)

In this way, this very specific way, “queer” is only useful in signifying that we know ourselves better, until such a time that we all do. “Queer”, as we run up the colors of self-hood, not a rejection of the norm but a transcendence its very possibility.

Originally sent out via email