Notes, Notings, and Common Refrains

This got me on a tangent that doesn’t relate to disability at all, I’m afraid. I hope you don’t mind me putting it down in your comment thread.

I have difficulty accepting definitions of sexuality labels that make a claim on being definitive due to the fact that these words have so many idiosyncratic meanings within particular spaces of the community as a whole. Claiming a label is a very important gesture in queer/LGBTQ culture, and it is something held as a basic right (within the spaces I frequent) that each person can claim whatever they want as part of their self-identity. While this is irritating from a lexical standpoint and it can be argued that these definitions do not exclude a “canonical” meaning outside the spaces in which they are idiosyncratically used, from my standpoint trying to corral labels is antithetical to the inherently outsider position of the community vis-à-vis mainstream society and its efforts to pin down individuals belonging to it.

To sum: within a particular study, discussion, or space, I’m fine with definitive meanings being used to facilitate the discussion—that is, within a conversation you might say “a homosexual is in denial, and a gay person isn’t”. I am not okay with saying that those words have those meanings always, and I am definitely not okay with an individual claiming they have the right to choose which meaning is “right”.