From the Glossary on www.licencetoqueer.com

The word queer, when used correctly, can be an empowering term which helps open up discussion and therefore foster greater understanding between people of different characteristics.

Unfortunately, queer was commonly used to attack the LGBTQ+ community until only very recently, and it still is at times. I remember being labelled ‘queer’ in the school playground and those negative associations are still with me. That’s part of the reason I want to reclaim the term and get people using it in the right way.

I’m not alone in this. Many younger LGBT people prefer the term queer because it doesn’t make them choose a particular box. It also carries a connotation of rebellion because of its history.

So queer can be used as a way of describing your identity.

It is also an academic term, one which has been used by academics for around four decades.

When the term queer is applied to a cultural text, such a book or film, it doesn’t have to refer to something that features explicitly (or even implicitly) lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex or asexual characters. An early pioneer of queer readings of films intended for consumption of non-queer people, Alexander Doty, argued that anything could be seen as queer. A queer book, film, video game, whatever is anything that challenges heteronormativity - the ideas, pervasive in many cultures: that the only normal or natural relationships are those between one man and one woman for the purposes of procreation; that gender is a binary (male/female). Queer texts present alternative possibilities to traditional narratives - you can’t be what you can’t see - helping people live more authentic, happier lives.

https://www.licencetoqueer.com/glossary