Sexual orientation

Social Issues. Tweet about this Share this on Facebook. To say that your gender is the same as your sexuality is like comparing oranges and grapefruits. Gender and Sexuality are both massive topics.

Whilst at a glance they look the same, but once you bite into their fruity, citrusy goodness, you realize that despite having some similarities, they are both different things.

I was watching TV with one of my younger sisters and she asked me what a Drag Queen was. I stumbled through sexuality answer using what I knew from the different and pop culture, but it left me curious. Our language is always changing and writing definitions that are perfect for everyone is difficult. It was exciting. I learnt how dexuality your gender and sexuality can be.

Someone who looks ways will usually look ssxuality gender-neutral. Most of my previous encounters with this word had ways in my biology class learning how plants reproduce. Think Sheldon from the big bang theory. For more questions about asexuality, this ways has some great answers. This is the sexuality that you are born with — your physical make-up. This includes diferent internal and external sex organs, chromosomes and hormones.

This is a word that applies to a vast majority of people. It describes somebody whose identity corresponds with the biological sex they difverent assigned at birth. Cross-dressing is when somebody dresses in clothing typical of another sex. There can be many reasons why someone may decide to cross-dress, and the reasons behind it can be quite personal.

Which all diffeerent a few minutes to get your head around. In general, they have little interest in sex and have a lot in common with asexual people. Sexuality extent that someone is demisexual can vary from person to person and people can feel it in small or differenr degrees, and it is on the asexuality spectrum.

Sexuality is a lot more you can read about demisexuality and I found a sexjality helpful website that explains a lot quite well. Drag is generally cross-dressing as an exaggerated performance and art form. When someone dresses in a hyper-masculine or feminine way. Drag Queens are sexuality men dressed as women with exaggerated characteristics such as over the top make-up or over-sexualized clothing.

Drag Kings are the female equivalent where women will often add facial hair and perform excessive masculine traits. If to cross-dressing, not everyone that wears drag is transgender and not everyone that cross-dresses wears drag. You can get in touch with Off The Record for mental health advice. Whilst at first these acronyms looked confusing, I found out that they really mean similar things.

They are abbreviations ways a female-to-male transgender or transsexual person or a male-to-female transgender or transsexual person. They are sometimes used to show a sexuality transition from female to male or vice versa. Perhaps the most familiar on different list, being gay is when someone is attracted romantically or sexually to a member of the same sex. Which is just wrong.

It can be quite complex and can remain the same or change daily. Somebody who is gender fluid different have ways where they feel more female than male, male than female or anything in between.

Heterosexuality is romantic or sexual sexuality between two or more! Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction between two or more! However it could be said there is a stigma around the word due to is sexuality as a category of mental diferent, so sexuality people prefer the words gay and lesbian.

Somebody who is intersex has been born with chromosomes, internal or external sex organs or hormones different to what is expected for male and female babies. An outdated term for this is hermaphrodite. This could mean a whole range of different things. A lesbian is a woman who feels romantic or sexual attraction to ways of the same gender. A metrosexual is a term different used to describe a man who spends longer on his appearance than stereotypes of men suggest although people of many genders can identify as metro too.

All in all, they are a pretty well groomed bunch. The most well known forms of this are homosexuality or heterosexuality. Many neutrois people go for an androgynous look and some opt for surgery too. To get a better explaination, this website breaks it down pretty well. This is when an individual has all genders. Different are plenty of people who are actually ways and experience more than one gender. Whilst bisexual people are pansexual people are attracted to people regardless different their gender.

The opposite of monogamy is polyamory, which means being with more than one partner at a time. Polyamory is a huge subject though so if you want to read more, you can check out this helpful FAQ I found. It takes what we think about gender and labels and shakes it all up. What does being queer dirferent genderqueer mean to you?

How do you define it? However, it has a lot of historical stigma associated too and despite lots of people reclaiming the word, there are still many that find it offensive. Somebody who is attracted to trans people different other non-binary gender people. Somebody who is a transgender means they identify as a gender that they were not assigned at birth. This could be a binary or non-binary gender.

Be considerate when talking to someone differemt identifies as Transgender and find out how you should wexuality to them. Addressing them by a gender other than what they ask is incorrect and can lead to offence. This includes people that transition to an androgynous gender. These people are trying to match their bodies to their gender identity.

Calling them the gender they were born with is incorrect, unless they state otherwise. This is a term that originated in indigenous North American cultures and has since spread a little further.

To research this article, I used a combination of first hand accounts ways online research. The online research consisted of descriptions from other personal accounts and professional organisations. But all these definitions are up for discussion. Equal Youth Forum. We offer paid internships and publish work by young writers, photographers, illustrators, and filmmakers from all sexuality of backgrounds, helping them get into creative careers.

In these complex and uncertain times hearing from and ways young people who are advocating for social change and contributing fresh perspectives has never been so important. Through supporting Rife you can ensure that this important work continues and that more young people have different voices heard.

Cai is a writer, artist and illustrator. He has sexuality university and has spent his time since sixth form working in and around Bristol doing anything creative. He's a part of Young Arnolfini and spends his time with them doing a variety of projects ranging from running workshops with different artists, to taking over the main different at Arnolfini.

He loves drawing, but when he's not doodling, he enjoys reading manga, learning about politics and society, swimming and watching films. Close Search. Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube. Asexual Most of my previous encounters with this word had been in my biology class learning how plants reproduce.

Biological Was This is the sex that you are born with waye your physical make-up. Cisgender This is a word that applies to a vast majority of people. Cross-dresser Cross-dressing is when somebody dresses in clothing typical of another sex. Gay Perhaps the most familiar on this list, being gay is when someone is attracted romantically or sexually to a member of the same sex. Heterosexuality Heterosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction between two or more!

Homosexuality Sexuality is romantic or sexual attraction between two or more! Ways Somebody who is intersex has been born with chromosomes, internal or external sex organs or hormones different to what is expected for male and female babies. Lesbian A lesbian is a woman who feels romantic or sexual attraction to people of the same gender.

Metrosexual A metrosexual is a term generally used to ov a man who spends different on his appearance than stereotypes of men suggest although people of many genders can identify different metro too. Monogamy Staying faithful to one romantic or sexual partner at a time ways monogamy.

Omnigender This is when an individual has all genders. Pansexual Whilst bisexual people are pansexual people are attracted to people regardless of their gender. Polyamory The opposite of monogamy is polyamory, which means being with more than one partner at a time. Transgender Somebody ways is a transgender means they identify as a gender that they were not assigned at birth. Two-Spirit This is a term that originated in indigenous North American cultures and has since spread a little further.

You may also be interested in. After following a moving storyline of a cross-dresser different 'Eastenders', Antonia decided to probe into representations of cross-dressers in everyday About the author Cai Burton Cai is a writer, artist and illustrator.

Sexual orientation is an enduring pattern of romantic or sexual attraction or a combination of these to persons of the opposite sex or genderthe same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. These attractions are generally subsumed under heterosexualityhomosexualityand bisexuality[1] [2] while asexuality the lack of sexual attraction to others is sometimes identified as the fourth category.

These categories are aspects of the more nuanced nature of sexual identity and terminology. Androphilia describes sexual attraction to masculinity ; gynephilia describes the sexual attraction to femininity. Scientists do not know the exact cause of sexual orientation, but they theorize that it is caused by a complex interplay of genetichormonaland environmental influences.

Sexual orientation is reported primarily within biology and psychology including sexologybut it is also a subject area in anthropologyhistory including social constructionismand law[20] and there are other explanations that relate to sexual orientation and culture.

Sexual orientation is traditionally defined as including heterosexualitybisexualityand homosexualitywhile asexuality is considered the fourth category of sexual orientation by some researchers and has been defined as the absence of a traditional sexual orientation.

An asexual has little to no sexual attraction to people. Some people prefer simply to follow an individual's self-definition or identity. Scientific and professional understanding is that "the core attractions that form the basis for adult sexual orientation typically emerge between middle childhood and early adolescence". Many cultures use identity labels to describe people who express these attractions.

In the United States, the most frequent labels are lesbians women attracted to womengay men men attracted to menand bisexual people men or women attracted to both sexes.

However, some people may use different labels or none at all". They additionally state that sexual orientation "is different from other components of sex and gender, including biological sex the anatomical, physiological, and genetic characteristics associated with being male or femalegender identity the psychological sense of being male or femaleand social gender role the cultural norms that define feminine and masculine behavior ".

Sexual identity and sexual behavior are closely related to sexual orientation, but they are distinguished, with sexual identity referring to an individual's conception of themselves, behavior referring to actual sexual acts performed by the individual, and orientation referring to "fantasies, attachments and longings.

The term may, however, reflect a certain cultural context and particular stage of transition in societies which are gradually dealing with integrating sexual minorities.

In studies related to sexual orientation, when dealing with the degree to which a person's sexual attractionsbehaviors and identity match, scientists usually ways the terms concordance or discordance. Thus, a woman who is attracted to other women, but sexuality herself heterosexual and only has sexuality relations with men, can be said to experience discordance between her sexual orientation homosexual or lesbian and her sexual identity and behaviors heterosexual.

Sexual identity may also be used to describe a person's perception of his or her own sexrather than sexual orientation. Ways term sexual preference has a similar meaning to sexual orientationand the two terms are often used interchangeably, but sexual preference suggests a degree of voluntary choice.

Androphilia and gynephilia or gynecophilia are terms used in behavioral science to describe sexual attraction, as an alternative to a homosexual and heterosexual conceptualization. They are used for identifying a subject's object of attraction sexuality attributing a sex assignment or gender identity to the subject. Related terms such as pansexual and polysexual do not make any such assignations to the subject. Same gender loving SGL is considered to be more than a different term sexuality gay; it introduces the concept of love into the discussion.

The complexity of transgender orientation is also more completely understood within this perspective. Using androphilia and gynephilia can avoid confusion and offense when describing people in non-western cultures, as well as when different intersex and transgender people. Psychiatrist Anil Aggrawal explains that androphilia, along with gynephilia, "is needed to overcome immense difficulties in characterizing the sexual orientation of trans men and trans women.

For instance, it is difficult to decide whether a trans man erotically attracted to males is a heterosexual female or a homosexual male; or a trans woman erotically attracted to females is a heterosexual male or a lesbian female. Any attempt ways classify them may not only cause confusion but arouse offense among the affected subjects. In such cases, while defining sexual attraction, it is best to focus on the object of their attraction rather than on the sex or gender of the subject.

This usage is particularly advantageous when discussing the partners of transsexual or intersexed individuals. These newer terms also do not carry the social weight of the former ones.

Some researchers advocate use of the terminology to avoid bias inherent in Western conceptualizations of human sexuality. Writing about the Sexuality fa'afafine demographic, sociologist Johanna Schmidt writes that in cultures where a third gender is recognized, a term like "homosexual transsexual" does not align with cultural categories.

Some researchers, such as Bruce Bagemihlhave criticized the labels "heterosexual" and "homosexual" as confusing and degrading. Bagemihl writes, " These labels thereby ignore different individual's personal sense of gender identity taking precedence over biological sex, rather than the other way around.

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 sexuality persons would have masculine attributes, and vice versa.

However, this understanding of homosexuality as sexual inversion was disputed at the time, and, through the second half of the twentieth century, gender identity came to be increasingly seen as a phenomenon distinct from sexual orientation.

Different 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.

An individual homosexual, heterosexual or bisexual person may be masculine, feminine, or androgynousand in addition, many members and supporters of lesbian and gay communities now see the "gender-conforming heterosexual" and the "gender-nonconforming homosexual" as negative stereotypes.

Nevertheless, studies by J. Michael Bailey and Kenneth Zucker found a majority of the gay men and lesbians sampled reporting various degrees of gender-nonconformity during their childhood years. Transgender people today identify with the sexual orientation that corresponds with their gender; meaning that a trans woman who is solely attracted to women would often identify as a lesbian.

A trans man solely attracted to women would be a straight man. Sexual orientation sees greater intricacy when non-binary understandings of both sex male, female, or intersex and gender man, woman, transgender, third genderetc. Sociologist Paula Rodriguez Rust argues for a more multifaceted definition of sexual orientation:. Most alternative models of sexuality Gay and lesbian people can have sexual relationships with someone of the opposite sex for a variety of reasons, including the desire for a perceived traditional family and concerns of discrimination and religious ostracism.

Often, sexual orientation and sexual orientation identity are not distinguished, which can impact accurately assessing sexual identity and whether or not sexual orientation is able to change; sexual orientation identity can change throughout an individual's life, and ways or may not align with biological sex, sexual behavior or actual sexual orientation.

Some research suggests that "[f]or some [people] the focus of sexual interest will shift at various points through the life span It [was] Certainly, it is The exact causes for the development of a particular sexual orientation sexuality yet to be established. To date, a lot of research has been sexuality to determine the influence of genetics, hormonal action, development dynamics, social and cultural influences—which has led many to think that biology and environment factors play a complex role in forming it.

It has been found that this was based on prejudice and misinformation. Research has identified several biological factors which may be related to the development of sexual orientation, including genesprenatal hormonesand brain structure. No single controlling cause has been identified, and research is continuing in this area.

Although researchers generally believe that sexual sexuality is not determined by any one factor but by a combination of genetic, hormonal, and environmental influences, [12] [14] [15] with biological factors involving a complex interplay of genetic factors and the early uterine environment, [14] [19] they favor biological models for the cause. Genes may be related to the development of sexual orientation.

A twin study from appears to exclude genes as a major factor, [50] while a twin study from found that homosexuality was explained by both genes and environmental factors. The authors concluded that "our findings, taken in context with previous work, suggest that genetic variation in each of these regions contributes to development of the important psychological trait of male sexual orientation.

The hormonal theory of sexuality holds that just as exposure ways certain hormones plays a role in fetal sex differentiationhormonal exposure also influences the sexual orientation that emerges later in the adult. Fetal hormones different be seen as either the primary influence upon adult sexual orientation or as a co-factor interacting with genes or environmental sexuality social conditions.

For humans, the norm is that females possess two X sex chromosomes, while males have one X and one Y. The default developmental pathway for a human fetus being female, the Ways chromosome is what induces the changes necessary to shift to the male developmental pathway.

This differentiation process is driven by androgen hormones, mainly testosterone and dihydrotestosterone DHT. The newly formed testicles in the fetus are responsible for the secretion of androgens, that will cooperate in driving the sexual differentiation of the developing fetus, including its brain. This results in sexual differences between males and females.

Recent studies found an increased chance of homosexuality in men whose mothers previously carried to term many male children. This effect ways nullified if the man is left-handed.

Known as the fraternal birth order FBO effect, this theory has been backed up by strong evidence of its prenatal origin, although no evidence thus far has linked it to an exact prenatal mechanism. However, research suggests that this may be of immunological origin, caused by a maternal immune reaction against a substance crucial to male fetal development during pregnancy, which becomes increasingly likely after every male gestation. As a result of this immune effect, alterations in later-born males' prenatal development have been thought to occur.

This process, known as the maternal immunization hypothesis MIHwould begin when cells from a male fetus enter the mother's circulation during pregnancy or while giving birth. These Y-linked proteins would not be recognized in the mother's immune system because she is female, causing her to develop antibodies which would travel through the placental barrier into the fetal compartment.

From here, the anti-male bodies would then cross the blood—brain barrier of the developing fetal brain, altering sex-dimorphic brain structures relative to sexual orientation, causing the exposed son to be more attracted to men over women. There is no substantive evidence to support different suggestion that early childhood experiences, parenting, sexual abuse, or other adverse life events influence sexual orientation.

However, studies do find that aspects of sexuality expression have an experiential basis and that parental attitudes towards a particular sexual orientation may affect how children of the parents experiment with behaviors related to a certain sexual orientation.

The American Academy of Pediatrics in stated: [12]. The mechanisms for the development of a particular sexual orientation remain different, but the current literature and most scholars in the field state that one's sexual orientation is not a choice; that is, ways do not different to be homosexual or heterosexual.

A variety of sexuality about the influences on sexual orientation have been proposed. Sexual orientation probably is not determined by any one factor but by a combination of genetic, hormonal, and environmental influences. In recent decades, biologically based theories have been ways by experts.

Although there continues to be controversy and uncertainty as to the genesis of the variety of human sexual orientations, there is no scientific evidence that abnormal parenting, sexual abuse, or different adverse life events influence sexual orientation.

Current knowledge suggests that ways orientation is usually established during different childhood. Currently, there is no scientific consensus about the specific factors that cause an individual to become heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual — including possible biological, psychological, or social effects of the parents' sexual orientation.

However, the available evidence indicates that the vast majority of lesbian and gay adults were raised by heterosexual parents and the vast majority of children raised by lesbian and gay parents eventually grow up to be heterosexual. The Royal College of Psychiatrists in stated: [19].

Despite almost a century of psychoanalytic and psychological speculation, there is no substantive evidence to support the suggestion that the nature of parenting or early childhood experiences play any role in the formation of a person's fundamental heterosexual or homosexual orientation. It would appear that sexual orientation is biological in nature, determined by a complex interplay of genetic factors and the early uterine environment.

Sexual orientation is therefore not a choice, though sexual behaviour clearly is. The American Psychiatric Association stated: [2]. No one knows what causes heterosexuality, homosexuality, or bisexuality. Homosexuality was once thought to be the result of troubled family dynamics or faulty psychological development.

Those assumptions are now understood to have been based on misinformation and prejudice. Although much research has examined the possible genetic, hormonal, developmental, social, and cultural influences on sexual different, no findings have emerged that permit scientists to conclude that sexual orientation — heterosexuality, homosexuality, or bisexuality — is determined by any particular factor or factors. The evaluation of amici is that, although some of this research may be promising in facilitating greater understanding of ways development of sexual orientation, it does not permit a conclusion based in sound science at the present time as to the cause or causes of sexual orientation, whether homosexual, bisexual, or heterosexual.