Gay

Disclaimer: People can experience identities in different ways. As such, people can identify with a label without exactly matching the definition because identities are fluid.

Gay is a term used by non-women who experience attraction to non-women. The definition can vary greatly, as the term was originally only used to describe men who were attracted to men, but this definition is more inclusive, as it also includes nonbinary and trans-feminine individuals. Gay people may or may not experience other sexual or romantic attractions, such as being on the asexual or aromantic spectrums, or being bisexual. Gay people can present in any way they like, whether it be masculine, feminine, androgynous, or a combination of them. Gay can also be used as an umbrella term for LGBTQ+ identities.

Homosexual is another term used to describe gay people, but not as often. Many prefer the term gay instead because homosexual was used when being gay was considered a mental illness or disease by anti-LGBTQ+ people. Because of this, some gay people may find being called homosexual derogatory and offensive. Some people prefer to call themselves gay because they believe the term homosexual is too focused on physical acts instead of attraction or romance. Other queer people do not use gay as a label to describe themselves because of the negative connotations with how the word is used in slang, undesirable cultural connotations, and/or because they find the label "gay" too restricting.

The opposite of gay is straight (heterosexual).

The gay (or Vincian) pride flag was created by Tumblr user gayflagblog on July 10, 2019. A 5-stripe variant was also proposed along with it at the same time. They were created as an alternative to the original proposed gay pride flag. The proposed flag was created by Mod Hermy on DeviantArt on August 24, 2016 and was based on the lesbian flag. Due to many controversies, the 2019 flag was adopted in its place.

Each color of the gay flag has its own meaning:

• Turquoise to green: community, healing, and joy (respectively)
• White: transgender, intersex, gender non-conforming, and nonbinary people
• Blue to purple: pure love, strength, diversity (respectively)

• The Trevor Project's "Understanding Gay & Lesbian Identities" defines what gay and lesbian mean, answers common questions about gay people, and provides additional resources.
• Many support resources for gay people include all 2SLGBTQIA+ people, so you can visit the Resources page for those.

Sources:

• LGBTQIA+ Fandom Wiki's "Gay" page
• Wikipedia's "Gay" page
• Wikipedia's "Gay men's flags" page
• "The 'Stolen' Gay Male Pride Flag"

Images:

• "New Gay Pride Flag" by gayflagblog, public domain
• "Vincian flag (original)" by Mod Hermy, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
• Simplified gay (MLM) flag by gayflagblog, public domain