Usually "homosexual" is used in really derogatory ways towards gay people, so it and "homo" are usually seen as slurs. From the GLAAD website; https://www.glaad.org/reference/offensive Just using "gay" works fine, you don't need to say "gays and lesbians" since "gay" covers mlm and wlw (aka gay men, bi men, gay women, bi women, etc). You didn't know, it's okay; the older people may not mind as much, but the more "current" generations do. If you aren't, like, gay as well as being ace, I really wouldn't suggest using the word. Like given I'm both ace and a lesbian I could use it and it would been seen as slightly less of a slur because I'm a lesbian, but it still stings, if that makes sense? January 28, 2020 at 11:48PM