Is everyone gay?

@optimisticMist1304 yeah, phrases like this often come from a misunderstanding of what being bi/gay mean, and misinterpreting data that shows many people can have sexual thoughts/feelings towards the gender they're not usually attracted to, without identifying as bi/pan/etc. It's a "nice sentiment" disguised as being inclusive, but really it's often just erasure and ignoring the difficulties that people who actually identify with these labels face. See this article about the topic. I don't think anyone tries to say that maliciously, but it comes off as dismissive. Almost as if "well, everyone can have those kinds of feelings so don't talk about it as though it's special for you". I'm all about human experience being a big spectrum that anyone can experience different parts of, but saying these kinds of things, especially when someone just got the courage to come out to you, doesn't seem the best approach to the topic. It also doesn't consider that it's really not everyone and there really are people who don't have attraction or thoughts about genders other than the one they're typically attracted to, just because something is more common than we might usually think, doesn't mean it's universal. And it ignores the degree or level that this attraction occurs, and what the attraction can mean to the individual. It's kind of like telling someone with anxiety "everyone gets nervous sometimes" or someone with depression "everyone gets sad sometimes"! Sure, that could be true, but that doesn't take away from the significance of that specific experience