Hi. So, I’m certain you might’ve jumped into this thread expecting something wildly homophobic or bashing on the contest winners. This is not the case- however, I’m extremely disappointed with what episode chose to do. Please keep in mind when reading the rest of this post that I am a black autistic lesbian who lives in a fairly homophobic household.
I am very, very disappointed with episode’s decision to name this contest the Qu//r contest instead of something like the Pride Contest. For me and many other people who fall under the LGBT umbrella, Qu//r has and will always be a slur. It is a slur that has been used against me; it is a slur that I am not and will never be comfortable with it. I know many who feel the same way, and many who don’t.
Yes, it is a reclaimed slur- but not for the whole community, and even if it was, there shouldn’t be straight authors and episode reviewers or whoever leads these contests that use slurs to address the community as a whole.
You wouldn’t go up to a group of black people and address them by the n-word, regardless of whether or not some (not all, because not all of us feel comfortable with the term qu//r) of them feel comfortable with using that word. You wouldn’t go up to a group of lesbians and call them dkes, regardless of whether or not a few of them call themselves by that word. You wouldn’t go up to a group of autistic people and refer to them as rtards. even if a few of them feel comfortable with it, they don’t speak for everyone. So why can qu//r- a word historically used primarily against homosexual couples- be used? Make it make sense, y’all.
Obviously, I don’t think there’s much episode can do now- it’s already out in the open, it’s already been on the shelf for a couple of weeks now. Still, I’d like to see episode do better by its LGBT community next year and refrain from using a slur that not everyone identifies with. God knows if the black history shelf was called the n-word shelf, episode’s HQ would go up in flames.
Thank you for reading. If you choose to reply, all I ask is for you to stay respectful to those with differing opinions than yours. Forums are meant to be a healthy discussion place for everyone, and this is no different.
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I agree and I know many of us reached out to Episode about naming a contest after a slur, particularly since it was open to anyone. I do use the word queer to refer to myself sometimes but I don’t always want others to refer to me using it. And I’m not at all comfortable with cis het people using it…like ever. I know they had a Pride shelf but they still could have just used Pride or something for the title since the shelf was up for Pride month anyway. But you know it’s Episode and they don’t care about the impact their platform has on marginalized people lol.
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Thank you for your addition. It’s a very frustrating thing and I hope that if enough people speak out about this, it’ll lead to them listening. 
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I remember at the beginning when this got announced that some user suggested to replace the name to be Rainbow or something. IDK why Episode didn’t do this as such - it’s only seven letters plus it sounds more positive
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Yeah! Rainbow sounds like a good idea. I don’t understand what Episode was thinking and I just hope they do better by us next June.
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I just find it extremely uncomfortable and disheartening that Episode chose to go with this name out of all the ones they could have (should have) gone with. It really seems like a step backwards for an app that supposedly wants to do/be better. Inclusion really isn’t inclusion if you’re offending a large majority of the people you’re claiming to support.
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AGREED AGREED AGREED !! i have reclaimed the slur and use it occasionally for lack of a better term , but it is still a slur when used by someone outside of the community. i do not want cishets referring to me as a queer and this competition title was encouraging them to do so.
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To be honest, I would be totally fine with the name had Episode meant for the contest to be “from the community for the community” (meaning only authors identifying as LBTQIA+ contribute to it) because the term itself is more common than rarely used among the community. But considering Episode didn’t set up any such limit, it might seem more derogatory instead of colloquial.
Also, I completely agree with this.
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I very much agree. I consistently qu**r, since I am part of the community and since it’s an umbrella term. However, I really do not like that is was used to name the contest for Pride month. “Pride” or “LGBT+” would be much better and allows allies to actually say the name of the contest.
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