The movie "Queer" just received a Golden Globe nomination for its lead actor, Daniel Craig. The film is based on William S. Burroughs’ novella of the same title.
Etymology of 'queer'
When Burroughs wrote the partial sequel to his book "Junkie" in 1953, he boldly called it "Queer."
"Queer at that time was considered the last word that gay men heard before their heads hit the pavement," explained Lillian Faderman, an author and historian who describes herself as an LGBT scholar. "It was a hostile term."
Nicole Verdés is the managing director of Lambda Archives in San Diego. She added, "What I know about Burroughs, my heart and my mind tells me that he used it as kind of like flipping the bird at the time."
Faderman agreed, "I don't think he was saying this is a word that is friendly in the gay community and you need to use it for us because we like it. But I think it was purposely shocking and too shocking apparently for his publisher. His publisher told him that he could go to jail with a novel like that in the early 1950s. He was really pushing the envelope. And I think that's what he was doing with the word as well."
Both the title and the story about a queer relationship set in 1950s Mexico were a provocation. Consequently, the book sat on the shelf for decades.
"Not until 1985 does it get published for the very first time, when the word starts to become something that's being reclaimed and used in a positive light," Verdés said.
The founding of Queer Nation in 1990 marked a change in the use of the word.
"I thought it was wonderful because it was so defiant and so angry," Faderman added. "Queer Nation was very much like Black militants in the 1960s, and '70s. They were angry. They wanted to fight back against injustices, and they didn't want to pull any punches. Queer was sort of a sock in the face of straight people who discriminated against them. But discriminated is such a placid word compared to how queer people felt in the late 1980s, early 1990s."
The origin of the word "queer," however, is uncertain.
"It definitely had entered the English language by the early 16th century, when it was primarily used to mean strange, odd, peculiar, eccentric," Verdés said. "In 1894, the term queer is thought to have been used in relation to a person's identity for the first time in a very public way during the 1895 trial of Oscar Wilde. There was a letter written by the Marquis of Queensbury detailing his disgust at Wilde's relationship with his son, Lord Alfred Douglas. It was read aloud in court in which he referred to Wilde and other homosexual men of the time as 'snob queers.'"
When Faderman came out as a teenager in 1956, "gay" was the umbrella term for young LGBTQ+ people. Now the word "queer" is being embraced by a new generation as the umbrella term, and that does not always sit well with everyone.
"It's generational," Faderman explained. "Young people use the term about themselves. People of my generation find the term an insult. Still."
Faderman still does not describe herself as queer, but Verdés, who is younger than Faderman, does.
"It's been a journey," Verdés acknowledged. "I've seen it go from, no we don't even need to talk about that. We don't wanna ruffle any feathers to being like, wait a minute. This is absolutely a legit word that the majority of our community — it feels like — identifies with. People are using it more often. You see more organizations that are sprouting up now. Instead of calling themselves an LGBT organization, they're calling themselves queer and trans."
Queer has now become a word that feels more inclusive and goes beyond just sexual preference.
"This word carries a lot more weight than just who I'm hopping into bed with or what gender expression I am," Verdés said. "This actually is my word because this is who I am, and I'm a fighter. And there's so much fight in this word, whatever it has meant this whole time to what it has currently started to begin to mean at this moment. Like, I love the word because of that weightiness to it, and I think a lot of people that use it feel the same."
Faderman acknowledged that each generation is entitled to choose their own terms.
"Although I never call myself queer, it doesn't bother me to hear young people call themselves queer," Faderman said. "Language is constantly evolving, but within minority communities, it's a very emotional subject between the generations."
Actor Drew Droege on 'Queer'
Drew Droege, who recently performed at the Old Globe Theatre in the production "Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors," co-stars in "Queer" as John Dumé.
"Luca Guadagnino just always said to me, 'Your character is very shy and very mean.' Which I loved playing those two things," Droege said. "So especially whenever anyone's back was turned to me, I knew exactly how to do that because I was like, I can just be that judge, that awful barfly who's always propping up the bar a few old fashions in and just being like, I know everybody's number in this bar."
As for the film's title and the word "queer," Droege has a complicated history.
"I hated being called it growing up," Droege admitted. "It was a slur, but I've come to love it. I've come to really embrace it, and I've come to identify as a queer person as well as a gay person because it's more encompassing in conversation — it's hard to say LGBTQIA+. It's just easier, I think, to say queer. But it also covers straight people who have alternative ways of going through the world. I know lots of straight cis people who say, 'I also feel queer,' and I welcome that. I think that's a catch-all for you just don't care much about binary 'normal' ways of doing things, and you make your own rules, and there is something about it that does feel political."
Droege also has complicated feelings about the casting of Craig in the queer role of Lee, who is essentially an alter ego for Burroughs.
"But my feeling is 'proof's in the pudding.' Is the performance authentic? Does the performance feel — in a queer role — does it feel like this person's really queer? I think that Daniel does an incredible job with that," Droege explained. "I don't think there's any sense of, 'Oh, this actor is being brave or really going for it or making making light of any of it as well.' I think he played it very honestly. Also, William Burroughs himself was married to a woman and became obsessed with men, lived openly as a gay man later in his life, but had a complicated relationship with sexuality. But I think it depends on the project, depends on the role, because I do support hiring queer actors for queer roles. I think it's very important. But I also think it's about what does the story need? How can the movie get made? It is a business, and there's all kinds of complicated feelings with that.
"I'm just really grateful that I got to play the preening bitchy queen. I think that would have maybe been a problem had there been a straight person in that role."
Guadagnino has a history of capturing sensual passions on screen from his early Tilda Swinton melodrama "I Am Love" to his award-winning "Call Me by Your Name" to this year's tennis ménage à trois "Challengers." "Queer" is rooted in an almost mythological past of Americans in Mexico in 1950. The film is dreamy, sad, beautiful and sweaty.
Craig invests himself in the Burroughs role and makes you completely forget his years as James Bond in order to create a vulnerable, yearning and even tragic character.
"Queer" feels vintage and period but also otherworldly. It is gorgeously crafted from the costumes and production design to the cinematography and music. It's also a film that makes me want to go read Burroughs again, and that's not a bad thing.
"Queer" is currently playing in theaters.
