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Forming a Queer Nation

Homosexual acts occurred long before the invention of homosexuality, but it was not until the labeling of this identity came to be that the queer community was thrown into such dramatic isolation, which slowly led to the formation of queer communities, LGBT organizations, and eventually the queer nation. It is because the social powers that be decided that same sex relationships were inferior to opposite sex relationships that the wider community began to shun and exile its queer members. In this essay I will explore the ways in which the social oppression of queer individuals sparked the construction of LGBT rights organizations which called all queer people together not just as a community but as a nation.

Queer Nation refers both to the overarching community of queer people, and the activist group formed in 1990. The group began in New York City with barely sixty people, but it quickly exploded into other cities around the world. It was started AIDS activists, members of ACT UP, and even a victim of anti-gay violence. Queer Nation was a group dynamically different from other reformist gay rights organizations such as the Human Rights Campaign. Queer Nation practiced direct activism and a militant protest style. They invented slogans like "Queers bash back!" and the now clich "We're here. We're queer. Get used to it!" A popular tactic of the group was to out closeted public figure, which was a highly criticized maneuver, but the rationale was to show that there were gay people in influential places, and thus give a stronger face to the cause of gay rights. Queer Nation sought to subvert the politics of assimilation, while trying to mobilize and unify queers.

Prior to 1990 the word "queer" had only negative connotations. To be called queer was to be called a pervert, a vagabond, a deviant, and all manner of undesirable things. Queer Nation was therefore just as controversial for its name as its assertive tactics. The use of the word queer was protested by queer people at the time, but the name stuck anyway, in no small part due to the desire to reclaim the word. By choosing the term queer, the founders of Queer Nation were openly challenging the preconceived notions of society as to what queer really meant. In time, so many began to identify themselves as queer or members of the queer nation, that the word had almost completely lost its negative meaning.

There is social debate about whether or not the queer community even

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