It stems from an old proverb: “there is naught so queer as folk”, essentially meaning “people are strange”. The meaning of “queer” has shifted and narrowed over time to refer to sexuality, but kept its ties to this idiom, resulting in the TV show “queer as folk” and the generic phrase “queer folk”.

There is nothing especially pretentious or mythical about the word. It may just be your own assumptions/interpretations of it. Far more people have an issue with the word “queer” than they do “folk”. If you don’t like it, don’t use it, but you should also aim to shake the stigma from it, as it’s not what 99.9% of people mean when they use it.

“Folk” is pretentious in your mind? I would think the opposite were more true. Having “folksy charm” means you’re more grounded and personable when describing someone you find to be outside the norm.

“Folk” seems to denote a culture more, while “people” seems to denote you’re just pointing and saying “them people”.

Folk just means people, in fact it’s less pretentious because it’s the commoner english word for people, from English’s germanic roots (see the german word Volk)

There is actually a mostly unrelated phrase from the north of England; “Nowt queer as folk.” Meaning ‘People can be strange in their behaviour’.

This may or may not have fed into ‘Queer Folk’. But it certainly was the source of a UK TV drama series called ‘Queer as Folk’ in the 90s.