Needed to edit, since I left out something important I intended to say but forgot. But apparently you cannot edit after 15 minutes.
It might actually be a generational and geographic issue. I self identify as queer (although I'm also a a gay man). Queer is actually the term preferred by many radical lgbtq activists for a variety of reasons. In addition to the co-option/reclaiming of the term some have mentioned, it is preferred by me (after studying "queer theory" as an undergraduate at Brown, where almost everyone preferrred queer, and while doing my ph.d at Oxford, where only a minority preferred the term), and many of my and younger generations because:
1. It offers a more fluid conceptualization of s e xuality. A la Kinsey, I think the dichotomy of straight and gay (plus bis e xual) is inaccurately rigid and the basis for a great deal of oppression;
2. It also is a more unifying term for the "lgbtq community." Instead of dividing us into different labels (and often creating/reifying power structures that favor gay men over women, transgendered individuals);
3. It creates an important alliance between s e xual orientation and gender identity; many transgendered people prefer being identified as "genderqueer" as opposed to having to be forced into a socially constructed role of male/female.
