Queer Does Not Mean Gay

I would like to thank The Crimson for publishing the article entitled "Gay Students of Color Form New Group" on Oct. 24, in which you informed your readers about the formation of Spectrum. It's great that the editors of The Crimson realize that this is important news.

However, I must point out that good intentions do not suffice. I'm sure the editors of The Crimson consider accuracy in reporting a very high priority and the article published on the 24th was sadly inaccurate in ways that are reductive and limiting to queer communities.

The headline "Gay Students of Color Form New Group" (as well as numerous references to the label "gay" in the article) was wrong because I helped form Spectrum and I am not gay. What am I, if not gay? I can't tell you precisely--not because I don't want to, but because I can't. I'm certainly not straight, and the label I prefer to use is "queer."

The Crimson reporter who wrote this article never asked me if I was gay, so why did she assume I was? Did she think we were really just all gay and that our decision to use the word "queer" was just a politically correct gesture? She wrote that Spectrum was "promoted" as a group for queers of color, as if that's just the way it was "promoted," while in reality it is something else. Spectrum is a group for queers of color, and that is a fact that doesn't need to be placed in quotes.

As an analogy, and only as an analogy, let's pretend the headline stated "Gay Black Students Form New Group." This would inspire more than just a debate over what labels ought to be used for minority students in newspapers. It would be wrong. Obviously, "students of color" is the correct term, since not all the students were black.

At the very least, The Crimson headline should have stated "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered Students of Color Form New Group." I realize that in the interests of space, The Crimson editors cannot try to list every form of queer identity that exists. Even the above example doesn't do that. However, this is exactly my point. We defy category, we defy attempts to be labeled and boxed in.

And so, the suggestion I give The Crimson is to start using the word "queer." Who are the editors trying to please by avoiding this word that, frankly, the rest of the educated world uses? The word may be inadequate, but it certainly does a better job than "gay." The editors may find this to be a politically charged word, but so is the phrase "people of color." The fact that some people will always take words that are correct, and call them "politically correct," as a method of implying that they are not really correct, should not deter The Crimson editors from making it a policy to report accurately.

Since I'm sure that's what the editors want to do anyway, I hope you'll start making steps to correct this policy of using "gay" as a toned down code word for "queer." It is wrong factually, as well as limiting, backwards and reductive. --Gowri Ramachandran, GSAS