Plenty of times.

Some were just that, where a roomie was in the room and that was all. Living room sex, or the door to the bedroom was non existent and was right across from the couch, that kind of thing.

Others were where the roomie was specifically enjoying the show because the women I was with tended towards exhibitionism since I was pretty deep into the local scene for group activity.

A few were more organized shows for a roommate’s enjoyment, during a span where I had a roommate that was very into watching. One of those times was with a girlfriend of hers that was into guys too, and we got along well enough to perform for my roomie.

Obviously, those weren’t casual roommates, or short term acquaintances.

For a while I lived with a friend that was gay, and we didn’t have much space, being young and broke at the time. Since I also didn’t have any issues with seeing men go at it (though, alas, I also wasn’t turned on by it), we tended to only bring home partners that were okay with being seen and not enjoyed lol. There were also several times where we’d both have someone over.

Over the years, most of my roommates were friends first, so I made sure to know what their boundaries were before sharing space. Luckily, being deep into the scene meant that most of my friends were from the scene. So for the ten odd years I had a roommate almost constantly, it was unusual for one to object to sex happening around them at all. Most were not only okay with it, but enjoyed it to some degree.

The few that weren’t friends first were really early on, after high school and for a brief span after college while finding the right job. Well, plus a cousin that moved to the area and needed a place while she got situated. That era was also really early into my time in the group scene, so I wasn’t often bringing people home. Hadn’t built up friendships in those circles yet.

Past the late nineties, I never lived with anyone that wasn’t either a partner or quite comfortable with (if not a part of) group sex activities in some aspect.

By the end of the early 2000s, I had been in a very bad car accident, so my group activities were curtailed heavily, as was sex in general tbh. I met and married my wife during that, and we didn’t need a roommate financially, so the only times someone stayed with us long term, they were friends or relatives. That’s the way things still are, though both of us have “retired” from non monogamy, and don’t have any desire to show off. So even if someone did live with us, we wouldn’t be doing anything significant around them.

But the decade of the nineties, roommates came and went fairly often, as did locations. Often at the same time. It wasn’t anything meant to be long term, though a few people were roomies a handful of times each.

It was a lot of fun.

Well, looking at proper swapping as opposed to group scenes and orgies, it’s really about the shared experience. Monogamy is great, but there are some things that you can’t do, and can only share vicariously. Being able to more viscerally see and hear a partner being fucked, or otherwise engaging in sex, you get a fuller perspective of how they respond, what they’re feeling.

Sure, when you’re with your partner, you have some ability to see what they’re experiencing, but it’s different.

Plus there’s the aspect of being able to interact with the member of the other couple you’re with. Being able to share the experience of watching your partners do their thing enriches your own sex. Just the experience of looking over at your partners, then looking back and sharing a smile or a laugh, or the enhancement of pleasure is such a wonderful moment of human connection.

Even taking turns, where one pairing has sex while the other watches, and then the second pairing uses the arousal from that to lead into sex, which often feeds back to the initial pairing so they go again is a very powerful thing. If you pick the right couple, it deepens not only your relationship, but the friendship between couples. Which may not seem hot on the surface, but the best sex happens as partners learn each other. So an extended friendship can make the sex amazing between everyone involved.

The camaraderie of it is nice as well, though that’s not the hot part. Being able to congratulate friends on how well they’ve engaged with your partner is lovely.

And, like you said, watching a partner fuck is better than porn with them. It’s immediate and real in a way that recordings can’t match.

Yeah, what happened?

It’s really about picking the right partner. The details of what to do, how to do it don’t matter much even if you were straight because there’s just too much individual variance in what people like. Yeah, the usual advice of not ignoring the clit applies almost all the time, but beyond that, you gotta communicate before and during.

Be honest, be open, and find someone that’s both willing to be a supportive guide to their body, as well as understanding that it is an experiment. It’s one of those times when it really should be about one person. If you go into it thinking about what you’re doing to her, you aren’t really going to satisfy that curiosity.

Instead, think about negotiating a mutually pleasant experience where you can explore, ask questions, and work your way through the experience. Tbh, that’s a great thing for any first experience, but when you’re crossing a major barrier like orientation, it’s damn important.

For real, you aren’t going to master that pussy your first time having access to one. Nobody does. So focus on finding that partner that’s going into it with a frame of thought that matches what you want out of the experience.

Now, like others have said, you’ll notice a lot of differences, beyond the obvious. The way pussy feels vs anal is a massive difference, but you might be surprised to find out that a man’s ass feels different than a woman’s, as does oral. The male body responds differently to anal as well. Neither is better than the other, but (or butt, I guess) if you end up enjoying things, and having sex with women anally, you’ll get what I mean.

You’d also be really well off if you can find a partner willing to let you switch back and forth between positions to really get an idea of why doggie vs missionary can be such a major difference in stimulation and pleasure.

Now, I can’t say all that without saying that “holes” aren’t actually what sexual orientation is about. So a fair warning that your body may not cooperate because your brain says hell no. I used to be active in bdsm circles, and sometimes topped men in scenes that included penetration. I’m not attracted to men, so it occasionally took assistance to make that part happen. So, if you run into trouble, you may end up needing similar assistance, or to make sure your partner is very masculine while still being a woman. Ymmv, but I had less trouble with very feminine men at least.

Only thing I can think of to add is that exploring outside of your orientation can be very rewarding on multiple levels. But it can also be stressful, so be prepared for that, just in case.