Orange Is The New Black star Lea Delaria didn’t pull any punches when talking to PrideSource when responding to a question about why she pulled out of the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival in 2014 over their anti-transgender policy and why it’s important to come together instead of pushing our community apart.
This is the biggest issue we have in the queer community to date and will continue to be the biggest issue until we learn to accept our differences, and that’s the issue. And part of me believes that this inclusivity of calling us the LGBTQQTY-whatever-LMNOP tends to stress our differences. And that’s why I refuse to do it. I say queer. Queer is everybody.”
We’ve talked often at Bilerico about whether or not using “queer” is appropriate and people have strong feelings about it. Some see it as a reclaiming of a historic slur; others are offended to hear the word come from fellow LGBT people because they will always see it as hurtful. Do you use it? Does it offend you?
Lea DeLaria: Get rid of ‘LGBTQ’ in favor of ‘queer’