Relationships bring people a lot of pleasure. We have relationships with:

• Friends
• Family
• Health workers
• Supporters
• Romantic partners
• People we work with
• People we meet online
• Children we know
• Many others!

Sometimes, our relationships are similar to those we see around us. For example, we might have a heterosexual or "straight" romantic partnership between a man and a woman. Or, we might have a queer romantic partnership between two women or two men.

We can also have relationships that we may not have seen much of or even thought of before. It could be a romantic relationship with more than two people. It could be close companions who care for each other but don't have sex.

People can have important relationships with:

• ‍Professional supporters. It could be someone who volunteers or works for an organisation to offer help, company or services.‍
• A housemate or companion. It could be someone who is part of your life but not a romantic partner or part of your family.

Intimate or romantic relationships could be:

• Between people of the same gender, like two women.
• Between people of different genders, like a woman and a man.
• With people who are gender-diverse, which means they don't see themselves as either a woman/girl or a man/boy.
• Between more than two people, like:
  • Polyamory, when three or more people are in a romantic relationship.
  • An open relationship, when two people are in a romantic relationship but are also free to have sex with other people.
  • Swinging, when couples have sex with other couples.
  • Casual sex, which is when people have sex without being in a romantic relationship.