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What is homosexuality and sexual orientation?

Sexual orientation is a way of referring to the direction of a person's predominant sexual attractions over time. A person who experiences persistent attraction to the same sex may be said to have a homosexual orientation. A person who experiences persistent attraction to the opposite sex may be said to have a heterosexual orientation. A person who experiences persistent attraction to both men and women may be said to have a bisexual orientation.

Homosexual is a word sometimes used to describe men being sexually and emotionally attracted to men, and women being sexually and emotionally attracted to women. This word has a very clinical feel and sound to it and is therefore not commonly used in everyday speech.  It is much more common to hear people speak about gay people or gay men and lesbian women.  This experience of same-sex orientation can be described as same-gender attraction.

Heterosexual means men being sexually and emotionally attracted to women, and women being sexually and emotionally attracted to men. Again, in common speech people may say "straight men or women" rather than the more clinical term "heterosexual".  In relatively rare instances, this experience of opposite-gender orientation may be described as opposite-gender attraction.

Bisexual orientation means having a persistent sexual and emotional attraction to both men and women. A person who is bisexual is attracted to both men and women, more or less equally, and over a period time.
Experiencing some attraction (or even sexual involvement) once or twice to someone does not make a person bisexual. In other words, a guy who is usually attracted to girls, and who has one sexual encounter with another guy, is not likely bisexual. A guy who is usually attracted to guys, and who has a sexual encounter with a girl, is likely not bisexual.  A girl who is generally interested in guys, who one day feels some sexual attraction to one of her female classmates, would not be considered bisexual either.

If you are in your teens, experiencing some attraction to both sexes can be a very normal and usually temporary stage and a result of the confusing process of developing sexuality.