This really hits home! I call myself a bi lesbian because I've almost always been attracted to women, but there have been several periods where I'm attracted to men as well, sometimes more than women. I don't want to ignore all of those feelings, hook ups, and relationships, or imply that they were not genuine by calling myself a lesbian. Yes I'm bisexual. I'm not currently into men, but I have been in the past and probably will be again in the future.
I love this! The way we think about sexuality can sometimes be very limiting. I see the 'labels' as things we use to explain a part of ourselves more clearly to ourselves sometimes and maybe to others. It's quite important to know that bisexuality can be so fluid and identifying as such doesn't automatically mean one thing or the other, it just means that we've experienced attraction to multiple genders in some way at some time. There's no one size fits all or specific percentages for that attraction to be defined it just is.
This bumps up against my general policy or respecting people's self identity. If I meet someone and they identify as bi, then they identify as gay or lesbian, I'm not going to say no, they're actually bi because at one time or another they experienced attraction to multiple genders.
Well hence: "you’re never required to call yourself anything. I’m not the police, go live your life."
People self-ID as straight or gay or lesbian for a whole host of reasons that are usually about community affiliation, but acknowledging that bisexual attractions are common even among mono-IDed people feels important!
This really hits home! I call myself a bi lesbian because I've almost always been attracted to women, but there have been several periods where I'm attracted to men as well, sometimes more than women. I don't want to ignore all of those feelings, hook ups, and relationships, or imply that they were not genuine by calling myself a lesbian. Yes I'm bisexual. I'm not currently into men, but I have been in the past and probably will be again in the future.
I love this! The way we think about sexuality can sometimes be very limiting. I see the 'labels' as things we use to explain a part of ourselves more clearly to ourselves sometimes and maybe to others. It's quite important to know that bisexuality can be so fluid and identifying as such doesn't automatically mean one thing or the other, it just means that we've experienced attraction to multiple genders in some way at some time. There's no one size fits all or specific percentages for that attraction to be defined it just is.
This bumps up against my general policy or respecting people's self identity. If I meet someone and they identify as bi, then they identify as gay or lesbian, I'm not going to say no, they're actually bi because at one time or another they experienced attraction to multiple genders.
Well hence: "you’re never required to call yourself anything. I’m not the police, go live your life."
People self-ID as straight or gay or lesbian for a whole host of reasons that are usually about community affiliation, but acknowledging that bisexual attractions are common even among mono-IDed people feels important!