I am very tired of people my age (late 20′s/early 30′s) saying that as slightly older LGBT people they don’t have a problem with “queer” and THEREFOR only whiny entitled teenagers have a problem with it and the concept of queer as a slur is “a very new one, kids”.

like I’m sorry but I came out surrounded by older LGBT people, many of whom are my mother’s age or older, and when I self-identified as queer, because I found power in that, around them, I could SEE their pain. They would literally wince. I was having lunch with an older man at one point and referred to myself as queer and he snapped, “I don’t call people that.” Eventually I learned that I could still self-identify as queer - and I do - but I mostly did/do that privately or among people who know me well and know where I’m coming from with it, or in my own spaces like in my home or or my own blog etc. Because look, people my age: WE ARE NOT THE ELDERS OF THE LGBT COMMUNITY. We are the older side of the tumblr demographic very specifically but 29-35 is not “old” and we do NOT speak for actual elders, “elder” is a term that is EARNED, it conveys a significant historical and community position, it conveys respect. Assigning yourself the position of “elder” to a bunch of teenagers when you’re fucking 30 and presuming to act like you’re SUUUUUUUUUPER oppressed or whatever by teenagers not wanting to be called queer because they’re apparently more aware of its history as a slur than you are - because, SURPRISE, the use of queer as a slur today is not just a generational thing! It’s also a regional thing, a cultural thing, etc, AND IT’S CYCLICAL - saying that because you a 30something who lives in like Montreal or New York or wherever and whose friends are all socialists etc are comfortable with “queer” as a personal identifier means that teenagers living with their Baptist parents in a rural community are being whiny brats when they say they don’t want to be called “queer” is PROFOUNDLY tone-deaf at the very least.