I'll never forget a conversation I had with a neighbor. I had just found out about some 2E types of issues that dd had, and the neighbor had a child with special needs. So I launched into this conversation about how I had her tested and they came up with these ideas for issues to pursue. Part of it included telling of how disappointed I was in the K teacher, who clued into none of this. I said something like, "she's bright but" is having trouble learning to read, etc. and the neighbor's eyes widened, "you mean like 'gifted'?!"
Interestingly, I got the same reaction when I told her first grade teacher - we were switching to montessori and it was part of the story about dd and why the switch. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head when I said the G word. The funny thing is, the teacher is very bright and from what I have seen, her child is probably gifted as well.
I think the problem in both cases happened to be the misconception that gifted = some kind of superstar genius. It's really hard for some people to understand MG, especially in the context of a 2E person.
I agree that special ed should include gifted. I think on my district's website, they might be located in the same place, under "learning services".
About the OP, I think that there will be issues no matter what people call it, but "gifted" really is an unfortunate choice of words. It emphasizes a sense of elitism (probably the wrong word also, but I think you get my drift) that might already be present in such a distinction.
