7 Things ‘Queeriodic Table’ Author Harriet Dyer Wants You To Know

Queer can be a more inclusive term to use than LGBTQ+. “There hasn’t been some new law passed saying you have to say queer instead of LGBT, but just think about how inclusive it is,” says Dyer. But by saying LGBT or LGBTQ+, she argues, you’re naming a series of identities and in doing that, there’s the potential to exclude others you don’t mention. Dyer belives that queer is more of an umbrella term. “It also has space for flexibility and fluidity in one’s identity too.”

Queer culture has existed since the dawn of humanity. Some of the earliest rock art in the world found in Sicily and Zimbabwe depicts gay sex, says Dyer. “Examples of same-sex unions crop up in Crete, Lesotho, Rome, Spain and France, to name a few… even pirates had a form of same-sex marriage – queer people have been involved in every step, in every culture.”

It’s impossible to discuss queer culture without delving into Stonewall. In 1969, riots took place in New York when police tried to run a raid on gay bar Stonewall. Among those who fought back were lesbian bouncer Stormé DeLarverie, drag queens, transwomen and activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. “After the riots, members of the queer community in the city organised protests in an effort to improve conditions for queer people,” explains Dyer. “Within two years, a new wave of gay rights campaigning had swept the world.”

Queer erasure has been a problem for years. “Popular history is guilty of scrubbing evidence of queerness from books, documentaries, film and TV,” argues Dyer. Queer people pay the price twice when contemporary culture doesn’t include their stories. “Firstly, we don’t see reflections of ourselves in the great stories of the day and secondly, when people look back, they take the lack of representation as evidence that we didn’t exist.” 

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