ELI5: Why does the LGBT movement differentiate between lesbians and gay people?

Thats a really complex question. Prepare for a total dumping of my thoughts on this one. Its gonna get complicated. I hope it interests you and that you'll take 15 minutes to read the 4am ramblings of some random Queer guy.

First, for the reasons I will outline below, I identify with the label "Queer" more than "bisexual," though bisexual is an appropriate term to describe my sexual preference, Queer is a more comfortable term. "Bisexual" to me seems very reductionist and doesn't fully describe my orientation. Yes, I have sex and relationships with both genders, but I do not feel restricted to those genders, nor do I make a very strong distinction between genders when deciding whether to pursue a relationship. Its not "man or woman," to me. Its "person." Anyway, on to your question.

Well, I can't really say honestly. I've certainly had more experience in a straight relationship, in that I've been with the same woman for the last five years. That doesn't mean that I prefer women, though. I haven't had a long-term relationship with a man, though I've had a few casual relationships. To someone on the outside looking in, it would seem I'm "more straight," but I wouldn't identify that way. I realized my bisexuality in my late teens, and very soon after I realized, I also happened to fall into a relationship with my girlfriend (whom I prefer to refer to as my partner, though for the sake of clarity, I'll use the gender-specific "girlfriend). I had had a good handful of sexual experiences with men that helped me realize that I do indeed have a strong sexual attraction to men, but these were casual "no strings attached" sexual relationships mostly. I didn't feel romantically attached to them for one reason or another.

I realized around the same time that I was "in love" with one of my straight male friends. I reflected on my relationship with him, and realized that we were "basically a gay couple" in a lot of ways, except that we didn't have sex. This made me realize that I had the capacity to be romantically involved with another man (not just sexually involved) if that makes any sense.

Presently, I guess if I had to answer directly, I would say I lean more towards straight, but in a very complex way, and I wouldn't really say that at all if you didn't ask specifically. I came out to my girlfriend about two weeks after we made our relationship official, and she was extremely accepting and encouraging. After about a year of monogamy with her, we talked alot about it and decided that she wanted me to be able to embrace my bisexuality more, but she was uncomfortable with me having other partners without her. This wasn't necessarily a jealousy issue as much as it was that we both acknowledged that our relationship was our primary focus, and that for either of us to have partners outside the relationship would be unfair. I genuinely wanted her to be involved in my bisexual experiences and relationships, and so did she. So basically we began to look for other bisexual men to have threesomes with. We had several encounters with 3 different men, and they were generally positive (one of the guys was what I would I would call "bisexual light," in that he really seemed uninterested in men, and I felt very strongly that I was being used for my holes, if you'll excuse the blunt language. I could have been a woman for all he was concerned). Aside from that one guy, we both found these encounters to be extremely fulfilling and they felt natural.

Anyway, as we had these experiences together, we eventually came to the conclusion that we would like to have a fully mutual three-way relationship with another man. We realized of course that that kind of scenario takes a great deal of patience and trust from all parties, and that it would take time and could potentially involve upsetting experiences for everyone.

But here I am getting into polyamory and moving away from your question.

As a male, I find myself to be very critical of other men when "assessing" them for relationships. I think this is inherent to same-sex relationships (romantic and platonic), but it comes with the flip-side of being able to more easily relate to men. I make male friends much more readily than female friends for this reason, but am more hesitant to pursue romantic relationships with men than I am with women. Also, given the depth of experience I have shared with my girlfriend over the last five years, it is difficult to embrace another new relationship with a man (or a woman for that matter, though thats not really relevant to my situation as my girlfriend is straight) because it feels fundamentally one-sided. Its almost like a new partner could never "catch up" to our level of trust and intimacy in a way. That feeling should not hamper our effort to forge a 3-way relationship though.

I guess I do identify more with "being straight", but only because I have much less experience with "being gay." To an outsider, I would probably "appear" more straight, given that I'm in a relationship with a woman and my presentation is more traditionally straight (though I reject the notion that my clothing or behavior would/should signal my sexuality in any way). I wear masculine clothing, I wear a beard, I have a deep voice and I assume a traditionally masculine role in my relationship with my girlfriend (usually), but those things ought not to give any indication as to my sexuality. The fact that many straight men have the opinion you presented is a problem for me, as it makes way too many assumptions. I would say I am a "manly man" in the sense that I am in line with the expectations of straight men, but those expectations are invalid and erroneous in my opinion. If I was walking down the street with a male sex partner, straight people would likely not assume that I take a submissive sexual role with men, because I don't present myself as their stereotypical "fag bottom," or whatever they picture.

The fact is, many straight people are so god damn unaware of how sexuality really works that they make it hard for people, who are actually honest with themselves and in touch with what makes them happy, to feel comfortable in a society where straight is the norm. Its nice that I generally don't have to worry about being judged or harassed or assaulted by straight people because of my sexuality, because my sexuality is not obvious to most people. I happen to present myself in a more traditionally masculine way (which has nothing to do with my sexuality. Its just my style), so I benefit from straight privilege in that way. At the same time as I benefit from that privilege, I detest that that privilege is afforded to me at all. I am only able to avoid much of the harassment sexual minorities face because I happen not to fit a stereotype that ignorant straight people have made up. There are similar stereotypes in the LGBT community as well. My opinions have been discounted, and my sexuality has been questioned by LGBT people because I don't fit the stereotype of a bisexual (whatever the fuck that is). I sometimes wish I did fit the stereotypes so I could actually feel comfortable in the community that claims to accept me. Instead, because I like the way I look with a beard and I like going to the local gay club with my girlfriend (where gay and straight women are ostensibly welcome to enjoy a safe space), I get dirty looks and rude questions.

To conclude, many straight people need to grow the fuck up about their expectations of other people's sexuality. Not to single you out, and I have no ill feeling directed at you for your question or you phrasing, but the question of "more straight or more gay" is basically meaningless. The truth and reality of it is beyond such simple terms. Thats why this is the longest post I've ever written on reddit.

Cheers, and thanks for reading this far!

-OakenBones

/r/explainlikeimfive Thread Parent