I am agnostic, and have been since leaving the church 20++ years ago. My friends mostly church folk had a hard time understanding, but the garden variety: "I am christian through inoculation cause I was born America" had a hard time with agnostic. I would really rather people know me as a good human.

"Extreme negative connotations"....like "gay" or "transgender" used to be? Just keep saying it until the morons minds dull up.

I tend to just use the word atheist. No sense beating around the bush, I find. I figure all those terms mean the same thing, so why does it matter which one you use? I mean, it matters in the sense that ignorant people may view you more negatively if you use the label atheist, but...fuck 'em That's their problem, not mine.

That is probably true. It is because judgmental people like to use labels as derogatory weapons. To ultra-religious true believers, atheist is one of their favored label to hate.

It's important for me to be honest and open so this is one of many reasons I call myself atheist.

Try pronouncing it as A-Theist instead of Atheist with emphases on A.

I'm okay with 'atheist'. Other people's reactions are their own. I'm not going to soft-pedal anything to assuage the ignorance of others.

just human