MouthBQ98 said:
I've heard it used as "gender queer" in topical literature, which I interpreted to mean something outside the binary norms, but perhaps nonspecific to another narrowly defined existing group.
I still think it is a bit odd that females who are gay/homosexual have the unique term Lesbian (apparently the first public lesbians were Greek?) but the males gay population simply uses the more generic terminology that can also be used across both common sexes.
Is there a categorical term for homosexuality that is male specific? Just wondering if it is hidden in the continuously expanding LGBTQ... acronym.
Personally, I think the LGBT umbrella is sufficient, but your commentary on queer is not incorrect. Really the Q stands for queer or questioning and can relate to sexual orientation/identity or gender.
There's a strange phenomenon with young people that they will come out, but don't want to put a label on it so they will choose this word rather than putting themselves in a box as Gay or Bi. Similarly there seems to be lots - a majority? - of bisexual men that would say they are primarily (90%+?) attracted to other men, but say they are bi. Honestly, I think it's harmless. If anything it's a huge luxury that didn't exist when I was younger.
I was talking to a young guy in his early 20's the other day who told me "You must be bi if you 'dated' women in college" even though I'm quite certain I'm gay and would never have a relationship with a woman at this point. The reality is there was no grey area in 90s and 00s so you didn't say anything unless you were sure because the consequences were huge if wrong and saying you were bi or queer would have been too difficult for people to understand.
Men who are only attracted to men are gay. Lesbian/gay are interchangeable for women, but the term lesbian has a long history and was a word they self-identified with. The reality is the gay male and lesbian "culture" are wildly different. For example, gay bars outnumber lesbian bars probably 10:1. I was still a kid back then, but my understanding of gay history is that the gays and lesbians weren't huge fans of each other.
