Welcome to The Daily’s special issue on queerness and sexuality. Our goal in producing this issue was to incite discussion and create space for topics related to queerness and sexuality that are marginalized or less visible in mainstream media. The articles in this issue by no means exhaust the ways to approach the topic; our purpose was not, in any way, to define queerness or police sexualities. We are not trying to present a specific vision of queerness and sexuality, but to explore both from as many perspectives as possible – particularly those that are not often centred in media coverage. That said, the issue is still lacking in discussions of how queerness intersects with other identities, and there are still voices missing from it. As such, we welcome feedback and criticism.

We chose to use the word “queer” because it has come to be seen as an inclusive term that can encompass many identities and sexualities. Queer is also a political word, given that it was reclaimed by queer communities in the 1990s, who transformed it from a slur into an empowering identity. Queer implies difference, and in this issue we seek to address the many different experiences of queerness, to refrain as much as possible from homogenizing and conflating queer experiences and identities. We also recognize that many non-straight folks do not identify with “queer” as a label, and we have chosen to make “queerness and sexuality” the topic of our special issue so as not to exclude those people. In using the word “sexuality” in our title, we hope to open up the issue to the complexities of sexuality that might be excluded from conceptions of queerness.

In putting together this issue, we wanted to be as accessible, transparent, and accountable to our readers as possible. As such, McGill students outside of The Daily’s editorial board were invited to sit on the special issue committee and be part of the planning process. We also had two brainstorming sessions for the issue which were open to the public, as well as one session that was only for non-straight folks, in order to come up with ideas for the issue. In accordance with this goal of accessibility and accountability, we invite our readers to provide their feedback on the issue – if you have any comments, concerns, or questions, feel free to send them to community@mcgilldaily.com.

—The McGill Daily editorial board and special issue committee