Defining Sexual Orientation.

Abstract

• Sexual identity refers to how individuals define themselves sexually. It may or may not describe their actual sexual behavior, fantasy content, or to which sexual stimuli they respond. • Sexual interests describe what individuals want to do, whether or not they actually do it. By definition, sexual interests imply that they provoke sexual arousal in the individual. • Sexual behavior is what individuals actually do, whether or not their behavior is consistent with their sexual identity or their sexual interests. The sexual behavior may or may not be desired and may or may not be arousing to the individual. Sexual behavior can be an expression of one’s own sexual interests, used to arouse one’s partner, done at the request of a partner, to explore one’s (or one’s partner’s) response to the behavior, or as a prelude to other sex acts. • Sexual orientation is a distinct type of an intense sexual interest. It will be defined further below. Sexual Orientation There are only two sexual orientations which everyone seems to agree exist, homosexuality and heterosexuality (though these are actually identities as I have defined them). In recent years, other sexual orientations have been proposed, including asexuality (Bogaert, 2015), pedophilia (Seto, 2012), and polyamory (Tweedy, 2011), among others. Bailey (2009) suggested that women (or at least some women) may not have an orientation. The lack of a consistent sexual orientation definition impedes the assessment of these proposals. It is not clear whether bisexuality is its own unique sexual orientation, whether bisexuality constitutes the coexistence of both heterosexual and homosexual orientations in the same person, or bisexuality comprises a sexual orientation and a sexual interest which is inconsistent with that orientation. It is possible that each of these possibilities can describe a subset of “bisexual” individuals. It also has been suggested that the homosexual–heterosexual continuum could be further subdivided into other discrete orientations (Vrangalova & Savin-Williams, 2012). Some individuals (professionals, lay persons, but especially activists) bristle at the suggestion that sexual orientations, other than homosexual and heterosexual, can exist. The reasons for this are multifactorial and beyond the scope of this commentary. Others suggest that heterosexual or homosexual orientations take precedence over other sexual interests/orientations, but, from my observations, that is not always the case. Examples will be discussed below. When contemplating the nature of sexual orientations, it appears that there are certain characteristics which distinguish a sexual orientation from other kinds of sexual interests. The following list of characteristics is not meant to be exhaustive; further research may identify other characteristics or invalidate the ones mentioned below. When distinguishing a sexual orientation from a sexual interest, it is not essential that all the following characteristics be present. Nevertheless, the more characteristics identified the probability that the sexual interest is actually a sexual orientation increases.