Lesbians and gays - why the distinction?

Question

Why not just Gays?
Serious question this, do Lesbians/Gays like or want the distinction, If so, why?

Ok, Lesbian is the original term for women, whereas Gay is a social term for men. Perhaps my question should have been Homosexual or Lesbian?

Answer 1

There used to be one group for homosexuals - referred to as gays. This stopped being the case in the 70's with the advent of some pretty wild Gay Pride parades. The female gays felt as though being gay was not being taken seriously, it was being carnavalized, hence trivialized and sought a different designation for themselves and the term lesbian was born into popular use.
It is still OK to call some of us gay, we don't mind ;-)

****After your update***
Homosexual and lesbian mean the same thing. The only distinction there is that a lesbian is a female that is attracted to the same sex instead of the generic homosexual which is a person attracted to the same sex. So, if you are talking about all people that like the same sex, it would be homosexual, if you are talking specifically women you would use the term lesbian, but I think it is more a matter of which is correct English than preference for what you are called.

Answer 2

Female and male brains are wired differently. For this reason there is a lot of difference between the experience of gay men and gay women. The relationships are different and the community is different. Some of this may be due to historical and cultural attitudes--but more of it has to do with the inherent differences in temperment between the sexes.

note: I noticed I got a thumbs down on this. I suspect this is from someone with a feminist orientation--or a gay rights advocate that is obssessed with normative defitinitons of equality. Both these groups have a problem admitting that "difference" does not translate into "inequality". A great book has been written by a neurologist with indisuptable feminist credentials. It is "The Female Brain" by Louanne Brizentine. It describes the effect that testosterone has on the development of the male brain while in the womb. It causes growth in some areas and shrinkage in others. The result is that the male and female brain come out wired differently. That does not mean they are inequal at all--but there are things that are much different in how they view and approach the world. Thus, there is bound to be a general differnce between female homosexuals and male homosexuals.

Answer 3

because we live in a patriarchy, and because lesbians DO face slightly different issues than gay men sometimes (and specifically an issue of invisibility because society is willing to ignore them instead of witch-hunting them), a distinction was made to kind of remind people that when we're talking about queer issues, we're talking about women too.

Read through some fundie literature on homosexuality, and notice how much of it doesn't apply to lesbians. They're ignoring lesbians because straight men find them tittilating, and because there's more shock value in gay men (which straight men, and therefore the society they dominate, will not find tittilating).

Answer 4

I hate to show my age but there was a time when we were all simply referred to as Gay, way back in the Bad Old Days before you kids were born, in the 70's and early 80's.

I think the distinction was made as a result of the AIDS wars. When so many of our friends and lovers died and there was no-one on whom we could rely except ourselves, a certain anger and resentment grew. The men saw themselves as a separate entity and the women did not want to be associated by name to us, because of the homophobia and ridicule we endured, so the women created their own identification tag.
The word itself is Greek and is a derivation of Lesvos, an island in the Greek archipeligo. In its mythology, a band of women warriors inhabited the island and were without the company of men. Nothing in its mythology suggests they were gay. It is an extrapolation.

Answer 5

erm first of all gay/gays is a term for happy

There is no distinction lesbians are happy which is gay....you could say same sex partners lol Gay is another term for male partners who are happy....tell me i am wrong PLZ lmao

Answer 6

I am a gay man. I like men.

Lesbians are women. They like women.

There is a different nuance, a different dynamic, a different 'vibe' with lesbian relationships when compared to gay men and our relationships.

If you were gay, you would understand.

Answer 7

It only explains the difference between the two sexes:no more no less.
Where I live we don't put people by gender in boxes.
Everybody is called a homosexual:whether we are talking about girls or guys..
Because thats what you are:a homosexual.
Greeting :Rob.xxxx

Answer 8

Well im a LESBIAN im not gay cause gay means(happy or a homosexual "MAN") and im not a man, OK.

Answer 9

They don't like being called homosexuals, so they look for alternatives.
Seems they can't face the fact of what they are.

Answer 10

Thanks for this question. There are plenty of us that would like to know. When someone knows a thing they tend to think everyone does. I read a lot on here because I am just interested in learning.