> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://www.isaacbowen.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://www.isaacbowen.com/2021/07/02.md).
# Queer
I’ve been thinking of “queer” as a word chosen by a society in transition. It feels like a transitional term. Not to *represent* transition, but a word in context of a culture that is, itself, transitioning.
I’ve been playing with “queer” as a way to say: I identify singularly, intrinsically. Not accomplishing my definition via contrast against a norm (or against *you*), but defining *my definition* as being wholly independent of the *idea* of a norm.
I am queer, and by this I mean that my self-definition is in a different *realm* than the one in which norms are defined and debated.
I am queer, and by this I mean that my *essence* — larger than any one realm — *protrudes into* the realm of norms, and so I may *happen* to resemble *a* norm on any given day. But the truth of who and what I am runs deeper, does not have any need to respect the gravity of this place. My identity is weightless, and that does not mean that it floats — it is not made of *mass*, and so the question of weight is absurd.
I’ve been working with the idea that this ☝️ is essentially true of us all, true of the essence we each carry, or which carries us each. With this way of thinking, it is possibly only a matter of time (or of a perspective on time) until our interactions *begin* with the assumption of singular, intrinsic identity. We will (I *think*, I *feel*) recognize each other ineffably, and create with each other *as we are*. We will not begin with assumption and representation and what-it-looks-like-I’m-compatible-with-based-on-my-presentation; we will just *ask*, “what do we each want today?”)
In this way, this very specific way, “queer” is only useful in signifying that we know ourselves better, until such a time that we all *do*. “Queer”, as we run up the colors of self-hood, not a rejection of the norm but a transcendence its very possibility.
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