Okay, so I’ve been thinking a lot lately about this whole sexual orientation and gender thing. It’s all over the place, and honestly, it took me a while to wrap my head around it. I figured I’d share what I’ve learned, in case anyone else is a bit confused like I was.
First off, I started by just Googling stuff. I mean, that’s what we all do, right? I typed in “sexual orientation vs. gender” and, bam, a ton of articles popped up. I skimmed through a bunch, and some were definitely better than others. Some were too academic, you know, with big words and stuff. But I found a few that were pretty straightforward.
Realization
The big “aha” moment for me was realizing that these are two totally different things. Like, who you’re attracted to, that’s your sexual orientation. It’s about the butterflies you get, who you wanna hold hands with, you know, the romantic stuff. And then there’s gender, which is more about who you feel like inside. Are you a man? A woman? Maybe neither, maybe both. It’s not about who you’re crushing on; it’s about who you are.
So, I started thinking about people I know. I have a friend, let’s call him Tom. Tom’s gay. He’s attracted to men. That’s his sexual orientation. He’s also a man. That’s his gender. Simple enough, right?
Digging Deeper
But then it got me thinking about the whole spectrum. I tried reading about stuff like, people who like both men and women, or folks who don’t feel like either a man or a woman. I tried to learn more about that to get the full picture.
- Sexual orientation is who you are attracted to.
- Gender identity is about who you are on the inside.
What I eventually understood is that it’s all about respecting people, no matter who they’re attracted to or how they identify. It’s not really my business to judge anyone. We’re all just trying to figure things out, right? Live and let live, that’s what I always say.
So yeah, that’s my little journey into understanding sexual orientation and gender. It’s not rocket science, but it’s definitely something worth thinking about. Hope this makes sense to you guys. It did for me, finally.
