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Like many groups that have suffered prejudice, gays and lesbian have "reappropriated" a previously insulting epithet like queer as a form of resisting its power. It is no longer a "curse" if it is used self-referentially. Similarly, lesbians - like my mother and my sister - happily refer to themselves as "dykes". But on a more abstract or academic note, the field of queer studies is more complex than that. It is ameans of looking at purportedly heterosexual texts, artifacts and practises and finding in them their "queerness", and/or identifying the homoerotic or lesbian element beneath the surface. The prototype would be, I suppose, Eve Kosofsky Sedgewick's book "Between Men". She makes a most amusing analogy between the behaviour of apparently rampantly heterosexual male atheletes (lots of hugging, bumpatting, et al) and the behaviour found in gay baths. An interesting book for its tke o literature and the rest of the cultural world. Hope this explanation makes sense. Regards, Tery %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%