ABSTRACT
The use of the word ‘queer’ to designate what is usually referred to as ‘gay and lesbian’ marks a subtle, ongoing and not yet stabilized renomination. [. . .] ‘Queer’ does not indicate the biological sex or gender of the subject. More importantly, the term indicates an ontological challenge to dominant labeling philosophies, especially the medicalization of the subject implied by the word ‘homosexual’, as well as a challenge to discrete gender categories embedded in the divided phrase ‘gay and lesbian’. Because Camp, as we are defining it in this volume, gains its political validity as an ontological critique, and because its reconceptualization was initiated by observations of queer activist practices, the term ‘queer’ may be the best descriptor of this parodic operation.
