What's my sexual identity?

Sexual identity or sexual orientation are just ways to describe who you’re attracted to. Most people will either fancy people of the opposite sex, people of the same sex, or people of both sexes, and some people don’t fancy anyone at all.

Different ways to describe sexual identity

These are the most common terms to describe sexual identity:

Straight (or heterosexual)

You fancy people of the opposite sex – so a boy who fancies girls or a girl who fancies boys.

Gay (or homosexual)

You fancy people of the same sex – so a boy who fancies boys or a girl who fancies girls. Gay doesn’t just refer to boys!

Lesbian

Girls who fancy girls. A girl who fancies other girls might call herself lesbian or gay.

Bisexual (or bi). 

You fancy people of both sexes.

Asexual

You’re not attracted to either sex.

You might have seen the word LGBTQ+ before. This stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (or questioning) and others. Read about coming out and homophobia.