Anyone can love anyone for a lifetime either with or without sex. Love isn't sex. And sex isn't love.

If you love someone, they also are not required to love you back. Love is not a deposit withdrawal card. It is something you give without expectation of any kind in return.

I am an adult (retired) normal hetero male. I found a life partner (male) back in the 60's and we loved each other without limits until the day he died in 1999. We never even considered sex, as neither of us were inclined to that. Though we talked about it. If we had of been gay, and enjoyed homosexual sex, we probably would have participated, but neither of us cared to. We were in some life threatening theaters at times, and physical closeness was a reality. Hugging, back slapping, touching, etc. That close contact kept the nightmares away.

I have been married to the same woman for 34 years, and she always known I had this connection bond that couldn't be tested. While he was alive, we both went through a couple of relationships each, where the partner just did not understand or trust what we were telling them. Either of us would have walked in front of a truck for the other without question. We were both semi pro fighters, actually Ray was 36-2 as a middleweight, and both of us understood the comfort of that loving relationship.

So my answer is, don't confuse love and sex. They are absolutely two different things, and you do not need one to have the other. Although it may be great for you if you do.

Love is too rare to every put strings on it. "I Love You, so you have to Love me back"... "You have to have great sex with me, and no one else"...."If you have sex with someone else, or "cheat on me", then our relationship is over"....and etc.

And lastly, True Love is not transient. It is eternal, forever. Those that I have loved in my life, I still love. I may not be with them today, but I love them with the same fierce strength as when I first found them.

Love who you love, let them know it everyday. Give that love away for free. Make sure there are no strings attached, and have sex with who ever attracts you. Those are sometime two different situations. Make sure everyone involved knows your true heart. Otherwise you get trapped in societies 'rules' about 'fidelity', where you learn to lie rather than stay strong enough to be true to yourself. The whole world is obsessed with sexual regimentation and rules that it never looks at how human beings actually function.

It is almost absurd that we have a social order that demands a kind of adherence to a standard of behavior that doesn't really exist in the vast majority of human beings. We build partner based long term relationships on the basis of 'fidelity'. and then function quite differently in the dark of night or light of day. That is just hypocrisy. A sophisticated word for '********'.