"1 in 2 young people say they are not 100% heterosexual" | I hope that in few generations people won't find labels such a necessity

Yes I am, because this is after all a fundamental problem inherent in the way we use language, like you said, and not something specifically related to gender or sexuality.

But I think you misunderstood my 'endgame' so to speak. In no way would I wish for a world where we could no longer use labels to communicate conveniently. If someone asks what my sexual orientation is, I don't give them the whole spiel, I say 'mostly lesbian' and add details when and if required.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with using labels in this way, in fact it's good and practical and rational. The problem is that the language we use on a daily basis creates a sort of feedback loop that can in turn shape the way we perceive reality.

So if you use the terms gay or straight, while being aware that in reality it's a spectrum and that those terms are merely vague approximations, everything is just dandy. But when people believe that this verbal binary translates into an actual binary and that you can in fact only be straight or gay and then are consequently confused to all hell by anything in between (this is even more pronounced with non-binary genders, but we all know that even bisexual people are misunderstood with shocking frequency), then we have a problem. And that does happen. And when people don't understand something they rarely support it.

Now don't get me wrong, my solution is not to get rid of these labels (or language as a whole, god forbid), but merely to be aware of its limitations and use it accordingly. The rest comes down to specifics. More variety, like you said, is what I suggested earlier, but the crux is really just to understand that it doesn't end with the way we say it and things are always more complicated than we can put into words. If every person on this planet agreed to just that, quite a few problems would be solved already.

/r/actuallesbians Thread Parent Link - yougov.co.uk