How do those on this forum differentiate the two? And speaking specifically to gay men who either suppressed their sexual orientation, or did not realize it until later in life, which did you identify in yourself first? Was it the potential have sex with or to be romantic with a man? Be specific.
I started out having romantic feelings for guys. I realized that I only seemed to want to date guys and that women didn't interest me. After accepting that about myself the sexual feelings just kind of naturally came out on their own. Dunno if this is helpful or not.
Sure, so I had my first inkling that I might be gay when I was 11. I probably knew it for sure when I had sex with a woman when I was 19, but didn't come out to anyone until about 2.5 weeks ago. I think it's fair to say I suppressed my sexual desire. Being a young man the sexual attraction (eros) I have to men has been most obvious to me. I've given less thought to less thought to romantic love (agape). That said, personally I feel like even my romantic love with past girlfriends was an act. Looking back, the care and concern I showed for them kind of felt forced and disingenuous. This might be because I hadn't really tried to find the best girl, just one who was passable. Still, I strongly suspect that my lack of romantic love was gender based too. I feel much stronger, more authentic love for my biological and fraternity brothers than I have for any girl ever. So to answer your question more directly, I'd say it was the potential to have sex with a man that has led me to realize (much later) that I want to have a romantic relationship with a man.
Firstly I thought I romantically liked women only, and sexually both women and men, then romantically women and sexually men, and now I believe I am both biromantic and bisexual. But focusing on the men thing. I knew I was attracted sexually to men since 8 yo more or less but I didn't realize I was romantically attracted to men until like less than a year ago. Hope it helps. Cheers!
I've never had a relationship with either a man or a woman, and have never really felt romantically attracted either (I think). However, for me the sexuality part is very defining as I've had dreams about guys since I was 13, but never about girls. So for me it's been sexuality oriented so far.
