Why are gay women called lesbians

But there is no objection to the use of the noun in the plural to refer collectively either to gay men or to gay men and lesbians, so long as it is clear whether men alone or both men and women are being discussed. 'Queer' is the more encompassing, politicized word to apply to both genders, although it is meant to encompass all genders and a bunch of other behaviors and sentiments that aren't.

It's only in the past few years that I've heard 'gay' applied to women, and it still rubs my ears the wrong way. The terms gay as an adjective and gay persons as a noun have been used to refer to both males and females.

Maybe because 'gay' men are in fact light-hearted and brightly-colored, while lesbians are dour and partial to earthtones. Many writers reserve gay for males, but the word is also used to refer to both sexes; when the intended meaning is not clear in the context, the phrase gay and lesbian may be used.

Why does "actor" mean "one who acts" but "actress" means "a female actor"? Why do lesbians have their own word? Anybody have an OED on hand? I'm curious why women have a label and men don't. Same damn thing. [4][5]: 22 Relatively little in history was documented to describe women's lives in general or female.

Thus, it is preferable to use gay or gay persons only when prior reference has specified the gender composition of this term. “Lesbian” is a demonym for the inhabitants of Lesbos, also spelled as Lesvos, so why does it today describe female homosexuality?.

As for the core of your question why homo women are referred to by the birthplace of Sappho, and homo men are just gay I don't know. If a person's talking about human rights, why does "he" say "the rights of man," even when "he" means women too?

I (gay man) always thought that homosexual women were lesbians, while homosexual men were gay. It's only in the past few years that I've heard 'gay' applied to women, and it still rubs my ears the wrong way.

I really don't know anyone who uses "gay women" Lesbian and gay male are preferred to the word homosexual when used as an adjective referring to specific persons or groups, and the terms lesbians and gay men are preferred to homosexuals used as nouns when referring to specific persons or groups.

[3][4][5]: 48 The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexuality or same-sex attraction. One particularly interesting word is “lesbian”, today used to describe a homosexual woman who is attracted to other women, but the root of the word is tied to the Greek island of Lesbos.

However, these terms may be ambiguous in reference because readers who are used to the term lesbian and gay may assume that gay refers to men only. I always thought lesbians self-identified as lesbians and promoted the usage to differentiate maybe?

This is pretty good too. There have been lots of words used for both in the past, but gay almost always refers to men, unless modified, i think. I gay man always thought that homosexual women were lesbians, while homosexual men were gay.

A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. Like the other names of social groups derived from adjectives for example, Blackgay may be regarded as offensive when used as a noun to refer to particular individuals, as in There were two gays on the panel; here phrasing such as gay members should be used instead.

The Greek Island of : Today, in modern usage, “sapphic” is often used to describe women-loving-women relationships and can encompass a broader spectrum of female or non-binary attraction to other women

Gay is distinguished from homosexual primarily by the emphasis it places on the cultural and social aspects of homosexuality as opposed to sexual practice. December 16, PM Subscribe Why are gay women lesbians, while gay men are just gay?

See Usage Note at homosexual.