Wade-
1. Your acquaintance must be really dumb. No. You can absolutely be gay without having any sexual experience. Really, you KNOW. Do straight guys have to have sex to prove they're straight...no
2. Dan Savage needs to come to work with me some day. People at work know but it's not like I'm
Out and flaming. My "clientele" doesn't need to know about my personal life. Am I a coward, no, I'd just prefer to come home from work in one piece. My "clientele" doesn't like "faggots". Ugh. That really pisses me off.
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Point #1 first. For me at least, I thought I might be gay when I was young. Then there were days I thought no, I'm not. I married the girl I was dating as a senior, and based on the fact we had a good sex life I thought maybe it was all in my head, and dismissed my gay feelings and thoughts for a long time.
Problem with that was that they never went away, and only grew stronger over time. Even as I was having by all accounts a very frequent and great sex life I found myself wishing I was with a guy more and more frequently.
By my mid 20's I knew beyond a doubt I was bisexual, but never voiced it out loud except to my wife. She didn't care, except that we both expected monogamy in the relationship.
These days I tend to just call myself gay, because while I had one successful relationship with a woman I've had no others, only date men now, and when I think about it have no real desire to be with a woman again. I find women attractive, but as time went on in my marriage I was less and less happy being in a relationship with a woman. It's not a good fit for me on multiple levels.
What I'm basically trying to say is that sex didn't do anything for me but confuse the issue. It had the exact opposite effect to validating my sexuality. I've had a few relationships with men now. Not many, but enough to be able to say without any reservation that it's what I prefer. I wish I'd figured that out without spending so much of my life denying it.
As for point #2, I think the others have covered my own thoughts about it pretty well. Everybody's situation is different and we all have our own realities, motivations, and problems to deal with. It would be nice if we lived in a world where nobody had to deny their sexuality, but we're just not there yet.
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