Does the term “gay” refer to bi-sexuality as well, or is it explicitly referring to homo-sexuality? [closed]

Solution 1:

Most people make a distinction between gay and bisexual:

Monosexual: People who are attracted to only one sex or gender. People who self-identify as straight, lesbian, or gay. — pct.edu

The people who don’t make a distinction tend to believe that anyone not completely heteronormative is gay: for example that bisexuality isn’t real or asexuals must be (closeted) gays. (This is, of course, offensive to people who identify as these orientations, and it’s something believed by fewer and fewer people as time goes by.)

Both bisexual and gay have some variation in meaning. Bisexual can refer to a specific non-monosexual orientation (attraction to both sexes) or to all non-monosexual orientations (as a synonym to pansexual, which includes attraction to trans/nonbinary people). Gay is sometimes used as a term for only men (as the counterpart to lesbian), a term for both gay men and/or women, and sometimes a term that’s even broader (as in gay rights).

Still, it’s important to recognize that there are terms beyond gay and bisexual. The medical field tends to use MSM (men who have sex with men), which includes gay and bisexual men, and also heterosexual men (its female counterpart being WSW). This is the significance of “self-identify” in the first quote, as many people who engage in such behaviors still identify as straight.