lesbian = gay?

[simonsez]

Whenever I watch Ellen my son always says she's a "Lesbian" but he won't tell me what that means. Is it gay? I think it means gay.

[tartanfan]

yep, she's gay/lesbian/homosexual/however you want to say it :D

[simonsez]

But how did you know what a lesbian was?

[tartanfan]

ummmmm well, i am one....

if you need some other confirmation, look up a dictionary.

[mom_of_12]

But how did you know what a lesbian was?

I'm not trying to be sarcastic, so please don't take it that way. Still, are you not from an English-speaking country? You're obviously old enough to have a school-aged child, but it blew me away that you've not heard the term before. It's such a common word...

[simonsez]

I feel really foolish right now. I'm an english speaker, but I never heard it before. I guess in this day and age I should know those sorts of words, but I'm never someplace where I hear those words. My son alwasy said it and I assumed it was a kids term. Like he was saying she was a jerk or something. Now that I've put two and two together I think the word dyke means the same thing. Am I off base? I really hope these questions don't sound stupid.

[mom_of_12]

If you are concerned that your questions seem foolish, have you tried using a site like, http://www.dictionary.com ? It could probably (& privately) answer numerous questions.

[ulsoccer]

Now that I've put two and two together I think the word dyke means the same thing.

It does. It's usually used as an offensive term, but i read somewhere that it's not anymore (to lesbians, anyway).

[JetGrrl]

If you are concerned that your questions seem foolish, have you tried using a site like, http://www.dictionary.com ? It could probably (& privately) answer numerous questions.

It also has a thesaurus function so you can find out all the other synonyms :)