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Sexual orientation refers to the direction of an individual's sexuality, usually conceived of as classifiable according to the Sex or Gender of the persons whom the individual finds sexually attractive. The most commonly used categories of sexual orientation are Heterosexuality (being sexually attracted to members of the opposite sex), Homosexuality (being sexually attracted to members of the same sex) and Bisexuality (being sexually attracted to members of either sex). Most definitions of sexual orientation include a psychological component (such as the direction of an individual's erotic desire) and/or a behavioural component (which focuses on the sex of the individual's sexual partner/s). Some prefer simply to follow an individual's self-definition or Identity . More recently, scholars of Sexology , Anthropology and History have argued that social categories such as heterosexual and homosexual are not universal. Different societies may consider other criteria to be more significant than sex, including the Respective Age Of The Partners , the sexual role played by each partner (such as active or passive), or the social status of the partners. '' Sexual Identity '' may be used as a synonym for sexual orientation, but the two are also sometimes distinguished, with identity referring to an individual's conception of themselves, and orientation referring to "fantasies, attachments and longings"Reiter, L. (1989) ''Sexual orientation, sexual identity, and the question of choice.'' Clinical Social Work Journal, 17, 138-150. and/or behavior. In addition, ''sexual identity'' is sometimes used to describe a person's perception of his or her own ''sex'', rather than sexual orientation. The term ''sexual preference'' has a similar meaning to ''sexual orientation'', but is more commonly used outside of scientific circles by people who believe that sexual orientation is, in whole or part, a matter of choice. MEASURING AN INDIVIDUAL'S SEXUAL ORIENTATION Varying definitions and strong Social Norms About Sexuality can make sexual orientation difficult to quantify. Researchers may use different markers of sexual orientation, including self-labelling, sexual behaviour, sexual fantasy or a pattern of erotic arousal. A clinical measurement may use Penile or Vaginal Photoplethysmograph y, where genital engorgement with blood is measured in response to exposure to different erotic material.Wilson, G. and Rahman, Q., (2005). Born Gay. London: Peter Owen Publishers, p21 From at least the late-19th century in Europe, there was speculation that the range of human sexual response looked more like a continuum than two or three discrete categories. 28-year-old Berlin sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld published a scheme in 1896 that measured the strength of an individual's sexual desire on two independent 10-point scales, A (homosexual) and B (heterosexual). Hirschfeld, Magnus , 1896. ''Sappho und Socrates, Wie erklärt sich die Liebe der Männer & und Frauen zu Personen des eigenen Geschlechts?'' (Sappho and Socrates, How Can One Explain the Love of Men and Women for Individuals of Their Own Sex?) A heterosexual individual may be A0, B5; a bisexual may be A3, B9; An asexual would be A0, B0; and someone with an intense attraction to both sexes would be A9, B9. Fifty years later, American sexologist Alfred Kinsey wrote in Sexual Behavior In The Human Male (1948): The Kinsey Scale measures sexual orientation from 0 (exclusively heterosexual) to 6 (exclusively homosexual), with an additional category, X, for those with no sexual attraction to either women or men. Unlike Hirschfeld's scale, the Kinsey scale is one-dimensional. Simon LeVay writes, "it suggests (although Kinsey did not actually believe this) that every person has the same fixed endowment of sexual energy, which he or she then divides up between same-sex and opposite-sex attraction in a ratio indicative of his or her own sexual orientation." LeVay, Simon , 1996. ''Queer Science: The Use and Abuse of Research into Homosexuality.'' Cambridge: MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-62119-3 . Malleability of sexual orientation In his 1985 book ''The Bisexual Option'', Fritz Klein developed a scale to test his theory that sexual orientation is a "dynamic, multi-variable process" — dynamic in that it may change over time, and multi-variable in that it is composed of various elements, both sexual and non-sexual. Klein took into account sexual attraction, sexual behavior, sexual fantasies, emotional and social partners, lifestyle, and self-identification. Each of these variables was measured for the person's past, present, and ideal.Klein, F., Barry Sepekoff, Timothy J. Wolf. ''Sexual Orientation: a Multi-Variable Dynamic Process,'' in Klein, Fritz and Timothy J. Wolf, ed., 'Two Lives to Lead; Bisexuality in Men and Women', New York: Harrington Park Press, Inc., 1985, p. 38. (Also published as ''Bisexualities: Theory and Research'', by Haworth Press, 1985.) Klein Sexual Orientation Grid online The degree in which sexuality can change varies from person to person. The Centre For Addiction And Mental Health has said "For some people, sexual orientation is continuous and fixed throughout their lives. For others, sexual orientation may be fluid and change over time."http://www.camh.net/Care_Treatment/Resources_for_Professionals/ARQ2/arq2_question_a2.html Research by Lisa Diamond has shown the sexual orientation is more fluid among bisexual women than lesbians.Diamond, Lisa Sexual Identity, Attractions, and Behavior Amoung Young Sexual-Minority Women Over a 2-Year Period ''Developmental Psychology (2000) Vol. 36 No.2, 241-250 Others organizations disagree with Fritz Klein. The David Satcher issued a report maintaining that "there is no valid scientific evidence that sexual orientation can be changed."" The Surgeon General's call to Action to Promote Sexual Health and Responsible Sexual Behavior ", A Letter from the Surgeon General U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2001-07-09. Retrieved 2007-03-29. Desire, behavior and identity Some people distinguish between #opposite/same-sex desires #opposite/same-sex sexual activity/behavior #self-identifying as straight, lesbian, gay, etc. Mainstream medical organizations have made clear that ”sexual behavior does not necessarily equate to sexual orientation.“ Just the Facts About Sexual Orientation & Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators and School Personnel , American Psychological Association , et al., 1999. Retrieved 2007-02-23. SEXUAL ORIENTATION AND GENDER IDENTITY The earliest writers on sexual orientation usually understood it to be intrinsically linked to the subject's own sex. For example, it was thought that a typical female-bodied person who is attracted to female-bodied persons would have masculine attributes, and vice versa.Minton, H. L. (1986). ''Femininity in men and masculinity in women: American psychiatry and psychology portray homosexuality in the 1930s'', , Richard Von Krafft-Ebing , Magnus Hirschfeld , Havelock Ellis , Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud , as well as many gender variant homosexual people themselves. However, this understanding of homosexuality as sexual inversion was disputed at the time, and through the second half of the 20th century, Gender Identity came to be increasingly seen as a phenomenon distinct from sexual orientation. Transgender and Cisgender people may be attracted to men, women, or both, although the prevalence of different sexual orientations is quite different in these two populations (see Sexual Orientation Of Transwomen ). An individual homosexual, heterosexual or bisexual person may be masculine, feminine, or Androgynous , and in addition, many members and supporters of lesbian and gay communities now see the "gender-conforming heterosexual" and the "gender-nonconforming homosexual" as negative Stereotype s. However, studies by J Michael Bailey and KJ Zucker have found that a majority of gay men and lesbians report being gender-nonconforming during their childhood years. Bailey, J.M. , Zucker, K.J. (1995), ''Childhood sex-typed behavior and sexual orientation: a conceptual analysis and quantitative review.'' Developmental Psychology 31(1):43 A definitional problem arises with the terms "homosexual" and "heterosexual" when either the subject or object of desire is Transgender or Intersex . Is a Transwoman who is attracted to other women a lesbian? What about her female partner? The majority of transgender people today would describe this relationship as lesbian, but scientists (especially in the past) have tended to characterise it as heterosexual, interpreting the sex of the transwoman as male, and basing the definition of sexual orientation on chromosomal and anatomical Sex rather than social Gender . Others would interpret the sexual orientation differently depending on whether the transwoman is "pre-operative" or "post-operative". Difficulties in making these judgements can be seen, for example, in debates about whether female-attracted Transmen are a part of the lesbian community. (See Homosexuality And Transgender ) For these reasons, the terms Gynephilia And Androphilia are occasionally (but increasingly) used when referring to the sexual orientation of Transgender and Intersex people (and occasionally, cisgender people), because rather than focusing on the sex of the subject, they only describe that of the object of their attraction. The third common term that describes sexual orientation, Bisexuality , makes no claim about the subject's sex or gender identity. (See also Pansexuality ) Sexual orientation is further complicated by more recent non-binary understandings of both sex (male, female, or Intersex ) and gender (man, woman, Transgender , Third Gender , or Gender Variant ). Sociologist Paula Rodriguez Rust (2000) argues for a more multifaceted definition of sexual orientation: DEMOGRAPHICS OF SEXUAL ORIENTATION See Also: Demographics of sexual orientation The multiple aspects of sexual orientation and the boundary-drawing problems already described create methodological challenges for the study of the demographics of sexual orientation. Determining the frequency of various sexual orientations in real-world populations is difficult and controversial. In the oft-cited and oft-criticized Sexual Behavior In The Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior In The Human Female (1953), by Alfred C. Kinsey et. al., people were asked to rate themselves on a Scale from completely heterosexual to completely homosexual. Kinsey reported that when the individuals' behavior as well as their identity are analyzed, most people appeared to be at least somewhat bisexual - i.e., most people have some attraction to either sex, although usually one sex is preferred. According to Kinsey, only a minority (5-10%) can be considered fully heterosexual or homosexual. Conversely, only an even smaller minority can be considered fully bisexual (with an equal attraction to both sexes). Kinsey's methods have been criticized as flawed, particularly with regard to the randomness of his sample population, which included a large number of prison inmates. Nevertheless, s such as The Castro in San Francisco, California , the concentration of self-identified homosexual people can exceed 40%. Almost all of these studies have found that homosexual males occur roughly at twice the rate of homosexual females. Estimates for the percentage of the population that identify as bisexual vary widely based on the type of questions asked. Some studies only consider a person bisexual if they are nearly equally attracted to both sexes, and others consider a person bisexual if they are ''at all'' attracted to the same sex (for otherwise mostly heterosexual persons) or to the opposite sex (for otherwise mostly homosexual persons). A very small percentage of people are not sexually attracted to anyone ( Asexuality ). DETERMINANTS OF SEXUAL ORIENTATION The Clinical Report. Retrieved 2007-02-23. Considerable debate continues over what biological and/or psychological variables determine sexual orientation in humans, such as Genes and the exposure of certain levels of Hormones to fetuses. Freud and others in the psychoanalytic tradition speculate that formative childhood experiences help determine sexual orientation. Genetic In 1993, , 1999 , BBC News . Flies bearing mutant alleles of the Fruitless gene, causes male flies to court and attempt to mate exclusively with other males. Twin Studies give indications that male homosexuality is genetically mediated. One common type of Twin Study compares the monozygotic (or ''identical'') Twin s of people possessing a particular trait to the dizygotic (non-identical, or ''fraternal'') twins of people possessing the trait. Bailey and Pillard (1991) in a study of gay twins found that 52% of monozygotic brothers and 22% of the dizygotic twins were concordant for homosexuality.cited in Wilson and Rahman 2005, p47 Bailey, Dunne and Martin (2000) used the Australian twin registry to obtain a sample of 4,901 twins.Bailey, J.M., Dunne, M.P., Martin, N.G. (2000). Genetic and environmental influences on sexual orientation and its correlates in an Australian twin sample. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78(3) Birth order See Also: Fraternal birth order and sexual orientation A recent study found an increased chance of homosexuality in male humans whose mothers previously carried to term many male children. This effect is nullified if the man is left-handed Blanchard, R., Cantor, J. M., Bogaert, A. F., Breedlove, S. M., & Ellis, L. (2006). "Interaction of fraternal birth order and handedness in the development of male homosexuality." ''Hormones and Behavior'', 49, 405–414.. No similar effect was found in female humans. Hormonal See Also: Prenatal hormones and sexual orientation The hormonal theory of sexuality holds that, just as exposure to certain hormones plays a role in fetal sex differentiation, such exposure also influences the sexual orientation that emerges later in the adult. Fetal hormones may be seen as the primary determiner of adult sexual orientation, or a co-factor with genes and/or environmental and social conditions. Innate bisexuality See Also: Innate bisexuality Innate Bisexuality (or predisposition to bisexuality) is a term introduced by Sigmund Freud (based on work by his associate Wilhelm Fliess ), that expounds all humans are born bisexual but through psychological development (which includes both external and internal factors) become monosexual while the bisexuality remains in a latent state. Homosexual as a mental illness Homosexuality is no longer regarded as a mental illness by the scientific community. In 1973 the trustees of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) voted unanimously to remove homosexuality as a disorder from the ''Sexual Deviancy'' section of the Diagnostic And Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders , the DSM-II.http://www.psych.org/pnews/00-09-01/recalling.html This was a major move with significant effect: the story ran on the front page of most newspapers, and over the following years the other mental health organizations came to the same conclusion.http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1589/is_2002_Nov_12/ai_94598255 Today, a minority of doctors regard homosexuality as a mental illness, and their views are criticized by major mental health organizations. Some government organizations have still not accepted the mainstream medical organizations' positions. For example, the . Most Western nations do not regard homosexuality as a mental disorder. A choice There is a debate in Popular Culture about whether people are able to change their sexual orientations at will (this issue is not to be confused with the object-relational psychoanalytic concept of sexual object-choice). Some people believe that any of the many sexual orientations can be chosen and switched between by preference, like any other Lifestyle choice. LEGAL ISSUES SEXUAL ORIENTATION AS A SOCIAL CONSTRUCT Because sexual orientation is complex and multi-dimensional, some academics and researchers (especially in Queer Studies ) have argued that sexual orientation is a completely historical and social construction. In 1976 the historian Michel Foucault argued that Homosexuality as a concept did not exist as such in the 18th Century ; that people instead spoke of "sodomy" (which involved specific sexual acts regardless of the sex of the actors) as a crime that was often ignored but sometimes punished severely (see Sodomy Law ). He further argued that it was in the 19th Century that homosexuality came into existence as practitioners of emerging sciences and arts sought to classify and analyze different forms of sexuality. Finally, Foucault argues that it was this emerging discourse that allowed some to claim that homosexuality as a human identity. THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN FRIENDSHIP AND HOMOSEXUALITY Some historians and researchers argue that the emotional and affectionate activities associated with sexual-orientation words (gay, straight, etc.) change significantly over time and across cultural boundaries. For example, in many English-speaking nations it is assumed that same-sex kissing, particularly between men, is a sign of homosexuality, whereas various types of same-sex kissing are common expressions of Friendship in other nations. Also, many modern and historic cultures have formal ceremonies expressing long-term commitment between same-sex friends, even though homosexuality itself is taboo within the culture.Robert Brain. ''Friends and Lovers''. Granada Publishing Ltd. 1976. Chapters 3, 4. USING EURO-AMERICAN CONSTRUCTS ABOUT SEXUAL ORIENTATION Heterosexuality and homosexuality are terms often used in European and American cultures to encompass a person’s entire social identity, which includes self and personality. In Western cultures we speak meaningfully of gay, lesbian, and bisexual identities and communities. In other cultures, homosexuality and heterosexual labels don’t emphasize an entire social identity or indicate community affiliation based on sexual orientation.Zachary Green and Michael J. Stiers. ''Multiculturalism and Group Therapy in the United States: A Social Constructionist Perspective''. Springer Netherlands 2002. Pages 233-246. SEE ALSO
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