Queer Collection

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Queer is a term that means different things to different people. Unlike some of the other labels in the LGBTIQA+ community, queer is also a term that was used back in the 1800s. 

Back then it was used to mean mysterious, strange or unusual. 

The first recorded use of the term queer as a slur was in 1894, when John Douglas, the 9th Marquis of Queensberry, called his son Lord Alfred Douglas and his alleged lover Oscar Wilde “Snob Queers” in a public court trial. Soon after, American newspapers began using “queer” to refer to gay men in disparaging articles.

In the early 1970s, LGBTIQA+ people started to reclaim the word, however it still can be considered offensive to some older LGBTIQA+ folks. At the same time, it is also an identity that people embrace and a term that is used proudly. 

The Queer Goldfields project deliberately chose to use the word 'queer' to encompass the mysterious people, the strange people, the unusual people as well as the LGBTIQA+ people.  

Image of Lola: By Antoine Samuel Adam-Salomon - https://www.meisterdrucke.us/fine-art-prints/Antoine-Samuel-Adam-Salomon/148433/Lola-Montez,-c.1860-.html, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=94832662