What is gay?

[Cromm]

Sparked by a flury of discussion and debate in this thread (http://www.virtualteen.org/forums/showthread.php?t=48663), I'm curious to know.

Is it solely a sexual orientation? A lifestyle? An abstract concept? Is a social construct the void of usefull purpose - a meaningless label, or somethingelse entirely? Or is it simply a word?

I'd like to hear your opinions and thoughts on what it means to be gay, whether you identify as gay or not. I'm speaking both in the denotative, and social sense here....


What does GAY mean to you?

:what:

[MoveAlong]

Gay, bisexual, and straight are all labels.

Everybody chooses what to identify with.
I identify as gay, because I'm attracted to men, and I get aroused by men, and I want to spend my life with a man.

But what others classify you as is different.

There are "gay for pay" porn actors - straight men who act gay, and have sex with men, for money. These men aren't attracted to men, but they do want the large amount of money that they can get paid.
Under many people's definitions, they would label these men gay, because they have sex with men, when these men do not consider themselves gay.

I'm pretty confused as to what gay means overall, because there's so many degrees. You can be "gay", but also be slightly attracted to women. Then there's those guys who absolutely reject being gay in any way. We may never know what they really are underneath all of that because their will is so strong.

I personally think everyone in the world is bisexual to some degree, just more attracted to a certain sex than others. Having labels, like gay, straight, or bisexual, helps define what you like most and helps as a guideline to who they will pursue, no matter what side feelings they may have.

[Antares]

Feeling sexually attracted to the same sex.

Thats basically it. Pretty simple definition in my eyes but then it gets complicated when people feel sexually attracted to...women and they are emotionally attracted to men...

[YourFriend]

Gay isn't a life style, gay is a sexuality, gay is a sexual orientation. And all of that means gay to me.

I consider myself and i believe i am gay even tough i am 14, and that is because i have both sexual, emotional and romantical attraction to guys, and neither of those 3 for girls. So I made that decision now, and I won't have to bother with doing it later, and i love being gay and i am proud of it.

[ThUnDeR]

gay to me is feelling sexualy, emotionally, and phisicly attracted to the same sex

[orangecounty]

In the most technical sense, it is just sexual attraction to the same sex. However many will not consider themselves gay if they don't have a sexual and emotional attraction to the same sex.

[kyle95]

i think it's a label made up by insecure ppl who cant handle seeing relationships that are diff than they're used 2.