#DrewsViews: Queer as an Identity
by Drew Adams
When I was 11, I thought I was a straight girl.
When I was 12, I was confused.
When I was 13, I thought I was bisexual.
When I was 14, I thought I was a lesbian, and confused again, but this time for a different reason.
When I was 15, after coming out as trans, I thought I was a straight guy.
When I was 16, I thought I was pansexual.
Now I’m 17, and I am queer.
I identify as queer, in terms of my sexuality.
I like some boys, I like some girls, I like some non-binary people. I’ve dated all of the above in the past, and I’m dating a man right now. Even though I like people regardless of gender, the label “pansexual” has never felt right for me. I don’t know why, I feel like it should feel right, but it doesn’t.
The label queer feels right. It means that I can like or not like whomever and not have to worry about what label I use.
I like queer because I feel like my sexuality has changed over the years, I’ve gone from liking mostly or entirely girls to liking everyone to liking mostly guys and I don’t really know what I like now. Especially through my transition as a transgender man, my sexuality has always felt fluid and I’ve never really, truly, identified with any of the labels I’ve put on my sexuality. The word queer is an identity as strong to me as my identity as a transgender man. It’s who I am.
Queer is the all encompassing label that needs no explanation. No matter who I find myself with, I will always be queer and I will never have to worry about changing my label to fit my lover.
Queer is my reclaimed slur. No matter how many people call me queer derogatorily, they can’t hurt me–because they’re right. I’m queer. I love being queer. That word carries no ammunition. It instead acts as my armor.
My name is Drew Adams, and I’m queer.
About the Author:
Drew Adams is a transgender high school senior from Ponte Vedra, FL, who is committed to LGBTQ advocacy at the local and national levels. He serves as his high school GSA’s president and raises money for Northeast Florida’s LGBTQ youth outreach, JASMYN, to which he also donates food, toiletries and school supplies. Nationally, Drew serves as a youth ambassador and advocacy volunteer for The Trevor Project, a youth social media ambassador for the Matthew Shepard Foundation, and a Volunteer and Intern Coordinator for Point of Pride. On the legislative side, Drew lobbies for the Equality Act by visiting with his Congressional representatives and their staff.
Additionally, Drew has spent years fighting to change his school district’s bathroom policy to be trans-inclusive, and the fight is still ongoing. Drew is an International Baccalaureate student and a volunteer at the Mayo Clinic, and he hopes to go to medical school and become an adolescent psychiatrist specializing in transgender health. For fun, he practices Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, creates sculpture art and plays the piano.
