Can any Americans help me with whether a word is inappropriate? (piefed.blahaj.zone)

submitted 1 month ago by LadyButterfly@piefed.blahaj.zone to c/lgbtq_plus@beehaw.org

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An American woman I know was angry and referred to a gay couple as "queens". I raised it, she is straight cis and says the word is fine in America. I'm in the UK and it's not ok here unless you're lgbt yourself (and even then plenty wouldn't like it).

Can anyone advise?

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[-] celeste@kbin.earth 13 points 1 month ago

I think it's context dependent. If she was using the word as an insult, then, no, it's not good. It's fine to use it casually like if you were talking about your favorite contestant on drag race. Positively is also okay. If you referred to a man who wasn't queer that way, they'd probably be insulted or correct you.

However, I really am not the best person to answer this question and only gave it a shot because no one else had. If she was like "those queens cut me off in traffic!" it's better than if she was like "those men are such queens ugh" or "those queens cut me off." The first one isn't ideal, but it's way better than using it as an insult.

edit: oh, whew, someone else answered, too