ABSTRACT
Queer emerged within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community to denote those who embraced their “otherness,” as well their refutation of their second-class citizenship. Since 1990, the US Supreme Court has struck down sodomy laws, upheld the constitutionality of same-sex marriage, and various corporate, institutional, local, state, and national policies and laws offer LGBT people protection against, and recourse when discriminated against. Some participants spoke of their queer sexuality in terms of being sapiosexual or demisexual, while others linked their queer identity to its root within the LGBT community. Several of these distinctions, for example, sapiosexuality and genderqueer, are recent conceptual evolutions, and their inclusion supports queer’s embrace of the fluid, diverse, and non-normative. The evolution in understanding as to who queer applies may be explained in part by social shifts in what is perceived as “normal” and from an understanding that one’s life history must be accounted for when determining inclusion.
