“Queer” is a completely valid word. It means “unusual”. Wurzelbacher’s use of the word was not only technically proper, but even polite. He could have used a variety of more colorful words, but chose not to. It is a shame the scope of our use the English language is so shallow these these days that the slang suggestion of a word overshadows its proper use in context.
Yes, it was polite. I would have said ‘sodomites.’ In public.
Have you heard the ad on radio shows about the use of the word gay? Someone says that such and such was “so gay” and then some other voice comes on to day..once the word gay meant happy. Now it means homosexuals..and to say something is so gay is to say it is so stupid..and we should “think before we use that word”....blah blah blah. Maybe we should just start to use the word homosexual for those folks regardless of the gender of the homosexual and do away with the word gay as it has become...toss this back at em..