I guess context is everything. For me, regardless of what the dictionary says, "queer" doesn't have any particular baggage. And, as it's currently used among my peers, I find it more a more accurate descriptor of my sexuality (mostly about women, but kinked up, gender-wise and otherwise, enough so that "lesbian" or even "bi" doesn't exactly quite cover it). I can't speak for all straight people (or otherwise) of my age/cultural demographic, but my experience is that they're at least as likely to use the word "gay" or "lesbian" in a tone so dripping with scorn that it's hard to imagine that they have the positive connotations that they had for the people who first seized hold of that word. And originally, of course, "gay" was the self-label chosen to avoid "queer," mostly, I suspect, just because 'queer" was the hurtful, scornful label they'd been given. Dunno whether the 'phobes are back to "queer" yet, but last I checked it didn't seem to have quite caught up. I suspect it's the same process that caused the generational switch from "Negro" to "Black" to "African-American" (for instance). Some of the reasons for the change has to do with nuances of identity, but mainly, I think, it's because people want a name for themselves that isn't the same one they feel their enemies gave them.


But ultimately it's about whatever works for you, I think.