Labels

I remember learning about connotation and denotation back when I was a kid.  Denotation was simply the definition of a word, but connotation meant the baggage that went along with it.  For example, scent and odor have basically the same denotations, but scent is a more positive sounding term than odor, which gives them different connotations.

When it comes to orientation (at least for guys), gay, homosexual, experiencing (or having or suffering from) same-sex-attraction (SSA) or same-gender-attraction (SGA), and other such terms all might have the same or similar denotation, but they have very different connotation.  One big problem is that different people have different ideas of those connotations.  Some people feel that SSA (especially if paired with "suffering from") connotes a disease.  Others feel that gay connotes a flamboyant lifestyle. 

So what is a blogger to do?  The biggest problem I have is that I've been so closeted and have only visited online communities of fairly recently, I never really knew what to call myself.  When I was young, I thought the term "gay" connoted a flamboyant lifestyle, and so I thought of myself as homosexually attracted.  But I've never heard anyone use HA to describe orientation.  I have occasionally tried a very politically correct sounding term like "non-traditionally oriented" but it sounds so politically contrived that I think of it as tongue-in-cheek.  Honestly, I sometimes use gay or homosexual when thinking of myself, but I'm not really set on sticking to anything.  I don't particularly like "suffering from" before any of the terms because it really does sound like a disease, but I don't think I'd be offended at most terms as long as they are not spoken in a derogatory tone.