Gay? Straight? Trans? What…?

Sexuality is as diverse as life itself! Personal experimenting is what helps you find your own way – only like this can you discover what’s best for your body and soul.

Sometimes, it’s not quite easy to grasp it all at once. Books can give you advice, as can others, or you can just follow your own instinct.

Although people like speaking – a lot – about sex between men and women, many still find it hard to speak honestly and without prejudice about the other forms of sexuality. On the one hand, it’s because it’s supposedly forbidden; on the other, it’s because of their ignorance. However, only knowledge brings understanding! Let us therefore take a closer look at some of the terms used.

Heterosexuality marks attraction directed only toward the other sex. Heterosexual people are also referred to as straight.

Homosexuality marks sexual attraction only toward one’s own sex: homosexual women are also referred to as lesbians; homosexual men – and sometimes women – are also called gay.

Bisexuality is a form of sexual attraction toward both sexes, i.e. when a woman is attracted to men and women, and a man attracted to women and men, with varying degrees of attraction.

Transsexualism is not related to sexual attraction. It is the case when someone was born as a man, and has a male body, but feels as a woman and wishes to approach this gender identity, or the other way round, when someone was born a woman, yet feels as belonging to the male gender and lives in a male identity. Transgender is a term often used instead of transsexual. The gender one lives in is also referred to as gender identity. Many transgender persons undergo sex adjustment procedures which can include changing one’s physical appearance, hormonal therapy and sex adjustment operations.

Transvestites or cross-dressers are persons who like wearing clothes usually worn by the other sex. These are often men who wear women’s clothes. However, they do not have to be homosexual, bisexual or transsexual. If they appear as artists, they are referred to as drag queens and drag kings in the world of show-business.

Intersexual people have no clearly male or female gender features at birth – like an infant with testicles and a vagina. They are often described as hermaphrodites.

There are a bunch of other possibilities, too. For example, asexual people, who feel no sexual attraction or desire. Queer is the word used for people who are not influenced by customary stereotypes and believe that every human being should determine their own identity. This means that there are a variety of genders, such as transgender, intersexual, lesbian, gay, bisexual, straight, and so on.

The assumption that every person can be precisely classified according to this definition is false. Many change their roles or preferences; even sexual orientation can change with time. For example, a homosexual man can later feel attracted to both men and women; a straight woman can realize that, after 20 years of marriage with a man, she is actually lesbian.