#romanticorientation

Yes, your whole childhood was a lie!

Sexuality and romantic orientations are two different things. A person can be romantically attracted to a person or many people, yet rarely feel sexual attraction for them. Similarly, a person may feel sexually attracted to a person or many people, but rarely feel romantic attraction for them. 

Much to our surprise, there are more than 20 types of sexualities and romantic orientations. Each one is different from the other. This abundance in types of sexual & romantic orientations makes it tough to get our ‘sex’ definitions right. 

Let us begin the romantic orientations list or sexual orientations list, with the three sexuality types, which are commonly known. (Thanks to the media for highlighting this during the recent LGBT movement!)

1) Bisexual 

People with bisexual sexual orientation feel romantic attraction towards two or more genders. Generally, bisexual sexuality is characterised by romantic attraction towards both males and females. But this was what you knew. 

The interesting part is the bisexual romantic orientation flag, which is used as a pride symbol by people with this type of sexuality.

2) Homosexual

People with homosexual sexual orientation feel romantic attraction towards people of same sex (gender). They feel a hormonal rush and sensual sensation only when they are intimate with same sex people. You might have heard about lesbians and gay people – they are homosexuals. 

They do same-sex marriages, which was a taboo for many years. Today, we also have gay romantic orientation flag and lesbian romantic orientation flag.

3) Heterosexual

People with heterosexual sexual orientation feel romantic attraction towards people of opposite sex (gender). In general, heterosexual sexuality is characterised by romantic attraction of a male towards a female and a female towards a male. 

And nearly 97% people in the world are born heterosexuals. Since this was very common, no special attention was demanded. So, there is no pride flag for heterosexuals.

These are the supersets, or the major types of sexual orientations that people have. You can know ‘what is your romantic and sexual orientation’ with the help of these. 

But, the question ‘what attracts your sexual partner’ might not be answered yet. For this, we need to have a look at the subsets of the ‘sexuality types’ and understand a bit about the ‘romantic orientations’.

1)You can start by telling a close friend, a parent/guardian, another relative, or even a school counsellor? Just start talking with someone you feel relatively close too, and are comfortable talking with. From there on out, you just have to tell them how you feel etc. (If you want, check out the comingout tag on this page, and there’s more advice there on how to come out to someone!!)

You most definitely can be!