GSCENE 51
NETTY’S
QUEERYING
WORLD
QUEENIE
BY QUEEN JOSEPHINE
GAY’S THE WORD
SORT IT OUT!
In the beginning was the word: ‘Gay’. We LGBTs ask a lot of it, it’s
only little but has to stretch to cover us all. It’s my most chosen
form of self-description. I tend to favour it over lesbian. This was a
big mistake when at the age of 15 I attempted to find love through
the Lonely Hearts pages of a London magazine. I described myself as
a ‘gay girl’ looking for fun. I got an even lonelier response from an
old Irish bloke who thought I sounded like a happy-go-lucky kinda
gal, just the tonic he needed.
Well then, somewhat unbelievably another bloody year has gone by
and what do you know, I’m still ‘a smoker’, I’m still ‘a drinker’ and I’m
still ‘a West Ham fan’. But never mind, this month is apparently going
to be the coldest and snowiest since time immemorial so rather than
feel all January-ish about it I’ve decided it’s time to embrace a putan-end-to-all-the-procrastination-towards-jobs-I-don’t-feel-like-doingbecause-I’m-ahem-always-too-busy philosophy.
Of course in the ever-shifting sea of meanings, gay no longer means
happy. Thanks to the yoof of today it’s leapt the species barrier and
doesn’t just refer to sexuality, but to some person, act or item, which
is deemed to be crappy or lame. There, I’ve just associated disability
with crappiness, managing to undermine and belittle another group.
I’m on a roll.
It seems some of the LBTs who shelter under the LGBT banner are
aggrieved at the sole use of the word ‘Gay’ to represent us all, i.e
‘Gay’ Pride. My response to this is that ‘Lesbian Gay Bisexual
Transgender’ Pride is, to put not too fine a point on it, not very
f**king catchy.
“I understand only too well how
it feels to be a minority voice
within a minority”
I understand only too well how it