I really hate labels, not just for sexuality, either. I hate it when mental illness labels seem to define someone as well. At any rate, I also know sometimes we WANT a definition or label so that we can find our... niche? Our groups? Or just to make a conversation on the topic easier. Still, I find myself stumbling around all kinds of labels quite often. I'm not good with them.

My youngest daughter came out as gay when she was younger (I don't really remember exactly when, it was a non-event in our house), but then this year (she turned 17) there was this one boy she started having feelings for. I think the "WHOA, MOM, I think I have those feelings for a BOY... WTF?" talk was more of an event than the "hey, btw, I'm gay" talk.

I was like, "So, maybe you are more attracted to the person than the gender?" (I'm awful with knowing all the proper terms, please don't kill me if I got it wrong.)

She was all worried that her siblings would freak (who are all close, but infamous for giving each other a really hard time about everything in fun), but they all handled it with complete grace and humor in a very nice way.

I told her at the time that I had always thought I was purely straight until I hit around her age and met a girl... so it's just not something that I think everyone just knows or hell, maybe it's just fluid for some people.

I often find myself wondering if I did/do handle these conversations right, especially because I feel so ignorant with the proper labels and phrasing of things. Thank you for this post. It is so well stated and incredibly helpful.