A homosexual man and/or a non-woman who loves non-women.

 

Sometimes gay is also used as an umbrella term, similar to queer, to refer to anyone who is not heterosexual/straight.

 

Use of the word to refer to male homosexuality dates back to the late 19th century, but it did not become favored by the community until the 1960s. However, the term also has a history of being used as a pejorative or term of ridicule, much like it’s linguistic relative queer.

 

The double male symbol has long been a symbol for gay men.

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MLM refers to any self-identified man, man-aligned person, masculine-aligned person or demiboy who loves other men, man-aligned people, masculine-aligned people and/or demiboys.

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While most variations of the rainbow flag are commonly used to mean “gay”, due to the nature of both the rainbow and the word “gay” being umbrella terms, various flags have been produced specifically for Men Loving Men (MLM).

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Vincian refers to gay men; men who love men exclusively, and do not date people who are not on the man/masculine spectrum. This version of the Vincian or MLM Flag was created by Tumblr users in 2017 with meaning given to each specific stripe.

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​Achillean or Apollian refers to ALL men who love men, whether or not they also love people of other genders. The original achillean flag was created by Tumblr user pridenpositivity in 2016, then redesigned by DeviantArt user Pride-Flags later that same year. Both feature blue stripes with a green carnation.

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