Hungry for sex advice you can trust? Each week the resident sex experts at Good in Bed will answer your most burning question. Go on, ask 'em anything. Your Sex Question: I just found out (via some totally sane Internet stalking) that my boyfriend used to have a thing with a guy. We've only been dating a few weeks. Should I be concerned? Should he have told me? How do I bring this up?
What Anna From Good in Bed Had to Say: Ahh, Google. Where would our dating lives be without this vital online vetting tool? For starters, we'd probably be a little less neurotic about our partners' past lives. For future reference, let this be a lesson to you that searching a potential lover's name -- while useful for weeding out serial killers and sociopaths -- may not be in the best interest of the relationship at hand.
That being said, you've already clicked the search button and found out that your dude used to date a dude. The first thing to do here is to explore your own feelings about this. Does it freak you out, and if so, does it freak you out enough that, even if you brought it up to him, you won't be able to date him knowing that he's also into guys? If this is the case, it might be time to call it a day with him. I'd encourage you to ask yourself whether and why you're concerned about it. What about him being intimate with a man makes you flinch?
People of our generation tend to be a little more fluid when it comes to sexuality. Asking a person of generations X, Y or Z to define his or her sexual orientation can result in a range of responses; it's not just about gay or straight anymore. Lots of us have been with people of the same gender and the opposite gender, and at the end of the day we're looking at our partner for who he or she is, rather than seeing his or her gender as something that defines our attraction.
You have a couple of options if you do want to bring this up with him. If you want to be completely honest, you can tell him that you Googled him and found this out. After all, we're all guilty of online investigations, and if there's something on the Internet about his former relationships, it's practically public information, so he's probably aware that it's out there.
If you want to be a little more stealth, you could say something like "Wow, my friend Jenny has always dated other women, and she told me yesterday that she met this guy who she's really into ... Isn't that interesting?" If he doesn't take the bait, let it lie. At the end of the day, the past is the past, and since most of us don't want to have to talk about our past relationships with our current partners, let him have his history and move forward with this budding relationship with you.
Anna is completing her master's in public health with a focus on sexuality and health at Columbia University. She has an extensive background in safer sex, HIV and STI prevention, and reproductive rights. She has worked with youth and women of all ages, with a focus on empowering others to take responsibility for and control of their emotional and sexual health. For more on Anna, see Good in Bed.












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Friday 26 November
By Hotpants
Haha, I googled my new boyfriend and found out he bought his house for almost $300k, and got an award in college. I think I'm keeping him. ;)
As for the being bi thing, it's not that big a deal. I know a bi guy who's perfectly happy with dating (and remaining monogamous with) girls. He just happens to find men attractive, too.
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Saturday 27 November
By justme
My issue with dating a man that had dated men would be that, once I had been intimate with him, I would not be eligible to donate blood.
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Tuesday 30 November
By Flower
RUN for your life. Hotpants, you are naive. Bi men always have MEN on their mind. Lusting for that booty.
Happned to me. I had been dating a guy almost two months he mentioned his ex girlfriend by name. Over and over.
One fine day, after we were falling in love I googled his ex girlfriend THE PRE OP TRANNY aka a man living as a woman ... who still has male parts!
EX bf and the tranny had been together for FIVE YEARS.
Tried all I could and never got over the fact that -he lied, SHE is a HE.
And ... the ex, like all bi men are into sex the way they have it with men (trying to be delicate).
Bi men are trouble but ... youth is wasted on the young good luck.
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Wednesday 01 December
By TheGreen
Wow, Flower, your argument was horrible. Just cause your ONE bi bf had a guy doesn't mean he's completely gay. It means he's bi. Bi means he likes guys and girls. Very stereotypical and narrowminded of you. Good job.
Thursday 02 December
By SB
As a bisexual person, I don't understand why people get so freaked out by us. Flower, that's a request to stop being biphobic and transphobic. It's really unacceptable.
I can speak personally, and for my friends, that there are many happy, well adjusted bisexual men in long-term relationships with men or women. I'm sorry that you had a bad experience-- or more accurately, an experience which offended your narrow sensibilities about gender and sexuality. Anatomy doesn't determine gender, and if your ex referred to her as his "ex-girlfriend", I'm sure it's because she identifies as female (lots of trans ladies keep their 'parts' for a variety of reasons).
LW, he may have dated a man, but he's into you now. I'd ask about his dating history, but I assume you'd do that if he were straight. Just don't go pestering him about his sexuality or turning it into a huge deal.
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Thursday 02 December
By DeBoe
Why don`t you freaks stop trying to convince the world of straight,moral,self-respecting people to accept your sick sexual behavior.
Friday 03 December
By Bimonog
Bisexual men or women tend to be shunned by sizable elements of the gay and straight communities. I'm bi, my wife is bi and we are in a happy monogamous marriage. Sexuality doesn't define how trust worthy you are to a partner, honesty and truthfulness are the foundations of trust.
Anyone can cheat, straight or not, and cheating is not the only thing that can ruin a relationship. Their sexuality is not an issue to them, they are with you because they want to be, do you want to be with them as an individual?
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Friday 03 December
By Katherine
DeBoe, please don't lump me in with your biphobia & homophobia I am a heterosexual woman who feels sick at the thought of kissing a girl and when was literally pinned down by another girl and kissed for about a second before I managed to wriggle away physically wretched.
However unlike you I know that there is nothing morally (or otherwise) wrong with being bi or gay. Love is love. Sexual Chemistry is Sexual Chemistry. Just because kissing other girls is wrong for me doesn't mean it's wrong for everyone else.
Oh and for the "if everyone was gay humanity wouldn't exist' frequent battlecry. A that is so unlikely to happen. B Since when does gay = doesn't want children. IVF anyone?.
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Friday 11 March
By memoriesofspring
I agreewith Katherine and several others. I have struggled through my sexuality and still am at times. I'm in a commited relationship, and I'm happy. I'm not straight, and haven't been since high school. Many of my friends either are straight, gay or ride the fence.
I know not one of them that doesn't want a child, or who has "brainwashed" someone.
"Why don`t you freaks stop trying to convince the world of straight,moral,self-respecting people to accept your sick sexual behavior."
Freaks? Thank you. Known that for years and am proud. DeBoe, are you trying to say that gays and bis and trans are immoral and un-self-respecting people?
I choose to disagree--I have many morals. I know right from wrong. I respect others and myself. There is nothing sick about following your heart. If yours says that loving the opposite sex is for you, then fine.
But please, don't attack us. We don't attack you. We aren't trying to convince you to "join the darkside". We're just asking for a little Aretha Franklin, otherwise known as R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
Can you do that?
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