Personally, I feel fine with the label "gifted". I feel comfortable referring to "the gifted." I don't think there is a negative connotation there like there is with "leper" or "freak".

It's difficult to talk about a group of people (such as the gifted) without having some kind of label for what we mean.

I think this topic has come up before--is there a better label? I have also seen terms like "highly intellectually able" or "high ability" being used. Are those preferable?