Chase T. M. Anderson: “‘Queer’ Has Become One of the Most Elegant and Powerful Words I Use to Describe Myself”

I appreciate the July 18 op-ed in The Advocate by Chase T. M. Anderson (right). Entitled “I’m Queer, Not Gay. It Matters,” Anderson’s piece is a direct response to Matthew Vines’ June 30 New York Times op-ed, “I’m Gay, Not Queer. It Matters.”

Vines’ piece elicited strong responses from many within the LGBTQI+ communities, especially from those who identify as “queer.” (See the previous Wild Reed post, “Queer Perspectives on an Anti-Queer Op-Ed.”)

Following are excerpts from Anderson’s op-ed.

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The terms “gay” and “queer” are not synonymous. When someone says “gay” to me these days, I think of cisgender. What comes to mind are people who say they’re “woke” but are silent as transgender people across the country are attacked. I think of being locked into acting how the heterosexual society wants our community to act.

I think of palatable.

Queer is often associated with describing the LGBTQ+ spectrum, an umbrella term of sorts. The word “queer” for many has been reclaimed – from a derogatory slur to a word of empowerment. This reclamation began after the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion, where our community fought against police raiding the Stonewall Inn, a place of gathering for queer people. Over time, the word has come to be a term of inclusion for many. It is a term that describes how many people live outside of the binary of male and female, and how sexual orientation and identity can be fluid over time. The word has transformed into a statement of empowerment, of “potential and a future, not something that is stagnant.”

Queerness is also an emphatic no to the cisgender, male-centric, ableist, White, inflexible way we've been taught that we “must” live from a young age.

. . . “Queer” has become one of the most elegant and powerful words I use to describe myself.

It has been a word I have reclaimed for myself.

Telling people I’m queer comes with a certain gravitas. A certain “do not come for me unless I send for you.” The word is a rose with thorns – one that combines a gentleness with the passion of someone who has had to fight to survive. When I say I am queer, it means I am here to battle for our community’s rights while wearing gold eye glitter as armor. To be queer in America means that I will also bring the softness of someone who years ago envisioned a world where we all were frolicking and got along.

To be queer, to me, is to hold onto that hope while dealing with the realities of now. At its core, being queer means being free to express myself however aligns most with my internal sense of self – and that is a power that many people fear and try to control.

By calling myself queer, I no longer let anyone dictate how I should label myself or try to have me “fit in” to a society not built for me.

After all, I’m queer, and not gay. It matters.

To read Chase T. M. Anderson’s op-ed in its entirety, click here.

Chase T. M. Anderson, MD (he/she/they), is an assistant professor in child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, and Medical Director of The Muses Program for Minoritized Youth. You can follow them on Instagram, X, and BlueSky.


Related Off-site Links:
Queer Isn’t the Threat. Respectability Politics Is – Brandon Robertson (Brandon Robertson (June 30, 2026).
Actually, I’m Gay and I’m Queer. It Matters – Emma Cieslik (Washington Blade, July 2, 2026).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Queer Perspectives on an Anti-Queer Op-Ed
• Cassandra Snow on Reclaiming the Word “Queer”
• Dyllón Burnside: “For Me, the Term Queer Just Opens Up Space”
• Reclaiming and Re-Queering Pride
• The Queer Liberation March: Bringing Back the Spirit of Stonewall
• Michelangelo Signorile on the Rebellious Purpose of Queer Pride
• Queer Native Americans, Colonialism, and the Fourth of July
• North America: Perhaps Once the “Queerest Continent on the Planet”
• Afdhere Jama’s “Love Song to the Queer Somali”
• Thoughts on Queer Cinema
• Queer Black Panther
• The New Superman: Not Necessarily Gay, but Definitely Queer
• Adam Sandel on the Queer Appeal of Harry Potter
• Dusty Springfield: Queer Icon
• David Bowie: Queer Messiah
• In a Historic First, Country Music’s Latest Star Is a Queer Black Man
• Kuan Yin: “A Mirror of the Queer Experience”
• Barbara Anne Kozee on Knowing the Divine in “Queer Time”
• Three Radical (Religious) Ideas for Queer Liberation
• Recovering the Queer Artistic Heritage
• Sister Teresa Forcades on Queer Theology
• Our Lives as LGBTQI People: “Garments Grown in Love”
• Tian Richards’ Message to Queer Youth: “Every Part of Your Identity Is a Superpower”
• Mia Birdsong on the “Queering of Friendship”
• Kadeem
• “Queer Love Is My Divine Companion”