[Vicky.]

Most of my gay mates hate queer also. Mainly as it was used as a slur against them most of their lives, so they find it hard to 'embrace' a word thats been used to hurt them. So they don't, as they don't want to. If others want to define themsves that way its fine by them, but..anything to do with 'queer' they tend to stay away from. Also they say that people who say thats their identity, are just saying it to be part of the rainbow. Like, people who have a kink define themselves as queer these days. Or just young students who fancied a girl once but are straight now, queer to be part of the group, maybe dyes hair blue to prove it. This seems to not be an uncommon view among older LGBT people (who dealt with a lot of homophobia when younger, much more than is around today, speaking generally) either. That queer is really just a label, rather than an actual identity.