Um, I'm not sure how to explain why I said they're not exactly lesbians. I'll try my best though. People have said that Strawberry Panic is like an explicit version of Maria-sama ga Miteru; it takes what would be a subtext in that and brings it out into the open. That would seem to imply that the characters really are lesbians, but I think that their feelings are circumstantial, and wouldn't last forever. That's why I mentioned limerence... a crush can be an intense thing, but in most cases it fades away, and I think with this it could cross normal sexual preferences. Take most* of the characters a few years into the future, and I think they'd be quite straight.
*Most because Kaname and Momomi seem to lesbians for real, and probably Shizuma too.
I'm suprised that I've thought so much about something in this series really, and it's not too important. It's not like we're going to see them in later life, and there's no
real need to think of them as anything but lesbians for the purposes of the story (at least, not that I know of), but the idea is there at some level, IMO. I've heard before that affection and crushes between girls of this sort of age is considered more natural in Japan than it is in the Western world. Not sure how true that is, but I've heard it a few times. So it could be just that, and it's only the presence of a couple of real lesbians that brings it out so much more. That's basically what I think about it.
In the end, it's mainly that it tests my suspension of disbelief a tad too much for me to accept that all (or at least a hell of a lot) of the girls at the three schools are lesbians. But like I said, it doesn't matter too much. I don't know why I bothered to bring it up, and to go into it like this.
Unless it becomes important at some point... maybe it could.
Hmm, that was kinda lengthy and pointless. :/