Same-sex relationship

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A same-sex relationship is a romantic or sexual relationship between people of the same sex.^[1][2] Same-sex marriage refers to the institutionalized recognition of such relationships in the form of a marriage; civil unions may exist in countries where same-sex marriage does not.

The term same-sex relationship is not strictly related to the sexual orientation of the participants. As people of any orientation may participate in same-sex relationships (particularly depending on the legal, social and scientific definition of sex), some activists argue that referring to a same-sex relationship as a "gay relationship" or a "lesbian relationship" is a form of bisexual erasure.^[3][4]