Women who are gay usually prefer to be called lesbians. Men who are gay are fine with being called gay men. When you are the group being referred to, you get to choose the term(s) of address. There's more than one in this case, that's all.

Might as well add fag in there too. Really!! Man. Sigh.

This dates back a ways. Yes, technically the term "gay" does cover both men and women. There was a time though when women were feeling marginalized (both inside and outside the "movement") because of the perception that the gay rights movement was all about the men. It wasn't conceived of as a separatist thing; more an inclusion thing.

1) The term gay covers also gay women. I suppose that some gay women prefer to see themselves as part of the larger gay community, and other rather as part of the women community. According to this choice, they would prefer to call themselves gay women or lesbians. 2) Please notice that the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is "working for the civil rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people"; so not just lesbian and gay people. Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Gay_and_Lesbian_Task_Force 3) Here an interesting discussion about this issue, with some excerpts: "Personally i think the use of the word Lesbian comes across more matter-of-factly. Its more of an assertive this is were i stand approach. Gay on the other hand seems to me a little more passive, a more of a general thing. When in the company of strangers, ill usually say im gay, but if, and somethimes they do, dont take me serioulsy or guys say they can fix that for me, I stiffen up, stand tall and say with vigor “NO, IM A LESBIAN” they tend to get the point after that. In company of friends its different. Ill use all kinds of terms. Lesbo, labia lover but my personal fav. is Big Ol’ Raging Lesbian, usually with a tone of humor. I find using humor makes people more comfortable when they feel apprehensive about meeting or being around someone who is different. They tend to open up and ask questions cause they see that im no different then they are." "I agree with Amber in that I’ve noticed that the women who identify themselves as “Gay” tend to be “Butch” and the women who seem to identify themselves as “Lesbian” are femme. My GF who is butch, almost always says she’s gay to family and co-workers, yet to me she’ll say lesbian. I noticed I rarely say Gay, but I guess I’m just more comfortable with Lesbian" Source and further information: http://lesbianlife.about.com/b/2007/02/08/lesbian-vs-gay-woman.htm 4) "Why Lesbians Aren't Gay From "Pervert" to "Victim:" The Media's Continued One Dimensional Stereotyping of Homosexuals" "What does it say about human nature that so many enthusiasms of the average lesbian and the average gay man diverge so strikingly? What broader lessons about current social issues can we learn from this contrariness of their tendencies, this dissimilarity of lesbian and gay passions that has been dimly observable in many cultures and ages, but that now in the wide open, self-fulfillment obsessed America of the 1990s is unmistakable? Well, apparently, we'd be best off not thinking too much about this fact. Better yet, we should avoid even noticing any of these curious details." Source and further information: http://www.isteve.com/lesvsgay.htm

When the homosexual community originally adopted Gay as their preferred word of description, it was intended to be gender independent. But nobody owns the language, and the way that the word has become used is to refer exclusively to homosexual men. This may be because there was a socially acceptable word for gay women (lesbians) but there was no socially acceptable word for gay men (queer, poofter, fag, fairy...). Whatever the reason, common parlance has taken the word gay to mean male homosexual and lesbian to mean female homosexual. Literary purists may shout against the tide. Those with more significant battles to fight than philological pedantry will accept the language the way the world uses it.

they are liberated homosexuals