Dictionary

tenderqueer en · NOUN

Etymology

From tender + queer, as a play on genderqueer.

Meanings

1. (derogatory, often, slang) An LGBT+ person with a gentle, sensitive, openly emotional disposition, particularly when cultivated as an insincere or self-serving affectation.
   • Sad Boi extraordinaire, reproductive justice fighter and unabashed tenderqueer—Fallon Simard is a rare voice within Indigenous art. 2017, Lindsay Nixon, "Fallon Simard – Monetized, But Agential, Bodies in Ghost Worlds", Esse, Number 91, Fall 2017, page 70
   • Tenderqueers are especially adept at using the watery language of therapy as a means to get out of most things. They’ll ghost you for three weeks then, when you call them out on it, will reply something like, “Your negative energy is affecting my ability to heal from past life trauma.” 2020 January 24, Daisy Jones, “Introducing: The Tenderqueer, the Softboi of the Queer Community”, in Vice:
   • Carrying your comfort with you is protection for the sweetly sensitive bull. You're a tenderqueer of few words, and you always make them count. 2016, Sally Mulligan, "Turn A Look: Taurus", PQ Monthly, April/May 2016, page 21

Forms