Is "homosexual" too clinical?

[Iceblink]

The word "homosexual" I save for conversations about sexual attraction
and sexual orientation. I don't like using to describe my relationship with my partner. If I were to say "my homosexual relationship," it seems to speak about the sexual part of it and diminishes everything our relationship of more than 12 years is about. I do you use the word "gay," but not describe my relationship. How often do you hear anyone saying "my heterosexual relationship" or "my straight relationship?" Almost never. I use the word "gay" as more of an all-encompassing, generic term. What would you have this site be called instead of using the word "gay?" QueerSpeak? Even it were some other name that did not use one of those terms, for the people that discovered this site through a Google search, how would they have done that without the use of some kind of word to bring up search results and get them here?

[Rareboy]

The word "homosexual" I save for conversations about sexual attraction
and sexual orientation. I don't like using to describe my relationship with my partner. If I were to say "my homosexual relationship," it seems to speak about the sexual part of it and diminishes everything our relationship of more than 12 years is about. I do you use the word "gay," but not describe my relationship. How often do you hear anyone saying "my heterosexual relationship" or "my straight relationship?" Almost never. I use the word "gay" as more of an all-encompassing, generic term. What would you have this site be called instead of using the word "gay?" QueerSpeak? Even it were some other name that did not use one of those terms, for the people that discovered this site through a Google search, how would they have done that without the use of some kind of word to bring up search results and get them here?

Well I never qualify 98% of everything I do by my sexuality. So the idea of saying homosexual relationship is as foreign to me as saying straight relationship and 'Gay' relationship is as bizarre as it gets.. And if someone flat out asks me what my sexual preferences are...I will tell them men.

[Hardheaded1]

I use the word "gay" as more of an all-encompassing, generic term.

As such, it may be the equal of "cool," as a term to signal approval, but not to mean too much, as it is used too diversely, just as "cool" is.

I think the thread title is proving to be dead on. Among homosexual men, and activists, there is a certain percentage of men who do find it to be too clinical, too intellectual, too analytical. They are uncomfortable with that kind of light, so prefer the softer lighting of the generic "gay."

And the parallels with heterosexual are telling. The fact that it does not come up casually as a term is a fair observation. Likewise, it returns to the OP assertion that the article linked makes a specious claim against the use of the term "homosexual." It's not that there aren't groups who use it as an epithet, but that hardly exonerates "gay" either, as it undoubtedly can and is used derogatorily by some.

Connotative meanings are not nothing, but they are not all there is.

Ultimately, I concur with Virge in that my sexual attractions are but a slice of me, a very valid and significant one, but no more defining than several other traits. As such, I don't find any appellation, bet it "gay," "queer," "homosexual," or any other, to be a reasonable label. I don't eschew identifying as homosexual, but I don't want it or gay as a bumper sticker.

[matty7]

always found the word Homosexual a very technical term for myself - call me batty boy or fag if you like,,don't care really but Homosexual is too medical for my liking, just not my favourite word description

[ShiftyNJ]

How often do you hear anyone saying "my heterosexual relationship" or "my straight relationship?" Almost never.

Only if they have one of each and need to distinguish! :-D

[Buzzer]

I don't think I buy the "cool" argument. I think many terms which are contextually restricted to the realm of completely impersonal categorization are simply not the terms by which people identify or group socially.

On forms and surveys and studies and applications, the most impersonal, objective and academic term possible will be favored. These are rarely the terms people go around using in daily life and many of them were perhaps never used this way. My sexuality is "homosexual" but I am not "A HOMOSEXUAL." At least the term "gay guy" phrases it such that gay is a modifier on guy (a guy who is gay) rather than summing up the totality of the individual by only the sexuality identifier.

Is that a bird over there or is it a member of family Corvidae? One isn't favored because it's cooler. It's favored because it dwells more in the realm of how people think, group and speak both to themselves and to each other.

[Rareboy]

I will now identify as Pavo Cristatus.

http://a-z-animals.com/animals/peacock/

Bless you.

[princealbertofb]

Odd that the English version of the word "GAY" has replaced the French word "pédé" (which honestly is wrongly used anyway since "pédé" is a shortened version of "pédéraste", which means he (or she) who loves children, not other members of the same gender). Strangely "pédé" is still used by gays and straights (sometimes derogatorily) sometimes just as a group name. It would not be strange to hear a gay man say : "je suis pédé", but at the same time never was a word less appropriate to describe what gay men's real interests are. How many gay men are also lovers of children, proportionately? Probably not that many.

I don't personally like the word "pédé" (too negatively connotated, to my mind) and would prefer to use "homosexuel" (even though slightly clinical) or "gay" (a bit too English). "Homo" is a common contraction of the longer adjective in French too. I might use that. I don't like using the weakish "j'aime les garçons".

[princealbertofb]

I don't think I buy the "cool" argument. ...
Is that a bird over there or is it a member of family Corvidae? One isn't favored because it's cooler. It's favored because it dwells more in the realm of how people think, group and speak both to themselves and to each other.

If it's a corvida-e it's probably a raven or a crow, which is more precise than the word bird. Maybe you meant avis?

[princealbertofb]

Only if they have one of each and need to distinguish! :-D

Might be the way to go for bisexuals who are also into polygamy or polyamory.